Value of a much needed friendship
by moewe93
Summary: What if Harry hadn't been all alone while growing up? What if he had a best friend who helped him through the hard times and introduced him to Magic a lot sooner? See how those changes affect the storyline throughout the first book.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, all rights belong to J.K. Rowling (sadly -_-)**

 **AN: This is my first HP fic, so please be nice and offer all the advice and ideas you got :) It will be appreciated!**

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The night the Dark Lord had been defeated by a small infant boy, named Harry James Potter, was celebrated all throughout the world by the magic community. Nobody really thought about where the small child would go now that he had such a famous name but everyone was sure it would be in the house of one of the greatest wizarding families he would find his new home. How very wrong all those people were was only witnessed by a very old man who stalked through the small town of Little Whinging towards Privet Drive. He was closely followed by an aristocratic looking tabby cat. Both were very sure that in the dead of the night everyone in the small town would be asleep and not notice a thing of the happenings that were about to befall them.

When both, the old man and the tabby cat reached number four of Privet Drive they stopped and the old man took out a small silver object which he then raised high above his head and clicked it once. All the lights from the street lamps came flying towards the object in his hand, only the one he stood underneath remained lightened. With a satisfied nod the man then turned to the cat and gave her a very disapproving look and a light chuckle. The cat straightened and in the blink of an eye were the tabby had been now was a tall middle aged woman with her black hair bound in a tight bun and glasses upon her nose. Her appearance made her look regal and wise and a lot older than she normally would look like.

"What are you doing Albus? Why give the boy to those horrible Muggles? I watched them for the last few days and let me tell you I wouldn't want any child of mine living with them. They are the most horrible and vain people I've ever seen."

"They are the only family he has left Minerva. I have no other choice."

"Every wizard in this world would gladly raise the boy who defeated You-Know-Who. I think there are plenty of options here old friend."

Albus Dumbledore sadly shook his head. "And what kind of a boy would they be raising? He would be as vain as those Muggles you complained so vehemently about. He would think of himself as a hero and would be even worse than his father and so called peers were when they were your students. Now tell me Minerva, do you really want such a boy to be our last hope?"

The cat turned woman sighed deeply and then slowly shook her head.

Before either parte could say anything else on the matter a low rumble was heard above the silent night that seemed to be getting louder. While Albus Dumbledore smiled and watched the sky attentively his companion Minerva McGonagall furrowed her brow in confusion and also looked up as if the dark night sky could give her all the answers she was looking for.

It didn't take long, maybe about ten seconds and there appeared a bright light next to all the stars. It was nearing at a fast pace and when the woman could finally make out what it was she was looking at she gasped loudly and ducked out of the way just in time for a flying motorcycle to land right in front of Privet Drive number four. On top of the bike was no other than Rubeus Hagrid, the Groundskeeper of Hogwarts and a good friend to both witch and wizard standing in front of him.

Climbing down from the bike the loud roar finally died down and the tall dark man patted his coat with a satisfied smile. "Slept all the way here the little man, Sir. The Muggles didn't notice a thing as we flew right over their heads although I think I might 've scared a few birds."

Albus let out a loud laugh and reached up to pat the tall man on his shoulder.

"I think the birds will forgive you Rebeus. Now the boy please. We have to give him to his family. And to soothe your nerves my dear Minerva I wrote a letter that will explain everything and make his life here fairly easy and hopefully just as happy."

The witch next to him again scowled slightly but didn't say anything for she knew how stubborn her old friend could be and there would be no change of heart in the last moment. He had decided the boy would live with his last and only relatives and didn't want to hear anything about how bad the environment probably was going to be for the boy.

Hagrid nodded sadly and reached under his big coat, placing a small bundle in the arms of his friend and the most powerful wizards of all times now that the Dark Lord was gone.

Inside the blankets was a small boy, not even one year of age with a mop of dark hair and bright green eyes that looked curiously up to the strange man holding him. A slight gurgle came out of his mouth when the man tickled his nose, then he was placed on the doormat to number four and a thick letter was placed under him. All three adults had teary smiles on their faces, everyone with different thoughts on the matter but none of them noticed the curious eyes of a small creature with big eyes and pointy ears peeking through the curtains of the house cattycorner to number four. The creature looked on as the small baby was left on the doormat alone and began to cry not short after the lights had returned to all the lamps and the motorcycle as well as the other two people wandering the street had vanished.

With a great sigh the small creature popped out of sight only to appear seconds later next to the small child. It began humming a lullaby and crouched down next to the baby to slowly rock it back to sleep. Only then was the creature able to see a scar on the forehead of the small child. It looked almost like a lightning bolt and was of a reddish color, indicating that it was a new one.

The creature had heard about what happened to the Potters but never in his life would he have dreamed that the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry James Potter, be a relative of the Dursley's. They were horrible people and only cared about themselves and their small son Dudley who turned one only a couple of weeks ago. It wouldn't be easy for a magical boy to fit into that perfect family. He would have to tell his Masters about what transpired in the night so that they could try to keep the boy save. Maybe their own small child could befriend the boy so that he wouldn't be as lonely as he was bound to be in the Dursley's home.

When the tiny boy was back asleep and the sun began peeking up above the horizon the small creature popped back into house number five of Privet Drive and went straight to the kitchen where he would begin making breakfast for his Masters. Mr. Blackstone worked at the ministry and had to be up every day bright and early for his job was at the Department of Mysteries and time was of very little importance to the matters dealt within the chambers of this Department.

When Mr. and Mrs. Blackstone awoke that morning it was to the whining of their baby girl laying in the cradle next to their bed and a loud squeal from none other than Petunia Dursley across the street. Normally squealing and Mrs. Dursley were nothing new to the inhabitants of Privet Drive but never had they heard it that early in the morning. Hoping that their loyal house elf Sunny would offer some input about the out of the norm squeal they both began to get ready for their day.

The story Mr. and Mrs. Blackstone got to hear that morning over their coffee was surely not what they had expected. Mrs. Blackstone cradled her special girl to her chest as she looked across the street to number four where nothing looked to be out of order and promised herself, that she would have a close eye on the small boy who overnight had become a new neighbor of theirs. She wouldn't let the Dursley's mistreat the little boy. There had been enough times when Mrs. Blackstone had been over to their house for tea and had heard Petunia ranting about her sister and her husband as if they were some vile creatures of the night. There was not even the slightest possibility she would be able to push the hatred for her sister away long enough to find a little love in her heart for the small boy who had been put under her care.

* * *

 **Six years later**

Alex was bouncing up and down in her father's car, today would be her first day of school. It would only be a Muggle elementary school but she couldn't wait to learn all those new things her mother promised her they would be teaching to all the children. She was also pretty excited to meet the other children that were her age. Her mother had always told her how it was too dangerous for her to be out by herself and that she had to stay inside and play with her things there.

At first Alex had thought it was because of her magic that sometimes decided to act up but then one day she had heard her mother and father arguing if she should even attend Muggle schooling with her condition. Then she had known what her mother's worries were all about. It was because apparently she hadn't all the right parts a girl was supposed to have and her mother was scared of what could happen to her if anyone would find out.

Today though Alex wouldn't think about her differences. Today she would enjoy herself and maybe even make a friend. It surely would be a first for her.

The school her father pulled up in front wasn't very welcoming. It was an old gray block with huge windows that indicated it had once been used as a factory. There was no playground only dark concrete and a few trees in front of it. Alex was just about to make a comment about how horrid the school looked and that she surely wouldn't have fun learning there when she remembered that she was only allowed to go because her father believed it would do her some good. If she started complaining now it would only give her mother another reason to argue for her staying home and getting a private teacher. So instead she put a huge smile on her face thinking about all the other children she would get to meet and followed her parents inside the large building. The interior wasn't nearly as gruesome as she would have suspected from the outside. The tall windows made sure there was enough light getting in and the hallways were painted in a calm orange with pictures here and there. They were obviously drawn by children but that made the place just look even livelier.

Finally Alex and her parents found themselves in a massive auditorium that could equal that of a small theatre and took their seats between all the other parents, grandparents and their children. Next to Alex sat a small girl with hair such a bright shade of blonde it nearly looked white. She was half a head smaller than Alex and looked slightly scared. Alex gathered all her courage and laid her hand on the shoulder of the smaller girl. With a bright smile she said "I'm Alex and I'm sure this will be really great. There is no need to be afraid."

The girl smiled shyly at her but before she could reply her mother scoffed at her in a warning and the girl simply turned her head away and shrugged of Alex hand. She didn't know what she had done wrong but clearly the girl's mother didn't want her interacting with her child. She had to ask her mother later if that was a normal behavior or if the family had a disagreement with her parents or something.

The whole ceremony of diverting the children into two different classes was over fairly quickly and soon Alex found herself walking next to a big blonde boy with a self-confident sneer across his face. He introduced himself as Dudley and wouldn't shut up about how great he was and what his father would get him for getting into school. She was sure she didn't want him to be her friend but also didn't know if she could get rid of him that easily. At least not without ending up with a broken nose or something like that.

Once they entered the classroom assigned to them that problem seemingly solved itself. Their teacher smiled at them and told them to choose their seats now. Whomever they chose as a partner would stay that over the span of their first year.

Everyone tried to find their friends or in other cases the most likely ones to become a good friend over time. Alex who didn't know any of the other children soon found herself as one of the last ones still standing around, not knowing what to do. That was when she spied a small boy in the back of the class who sat all alone at one of the desks. He wore glasses that were fixed with tape in the middle and much too big clothes to be his own. Probably those of an elder sibling which meant that his family didn't have much money. He would be the best choice to make friends with decided Alex. He wouldn't care about her parents being a bit weird or how much money they had.

Without further thinking she rushed to the back of the class and fell down in the empty seat next to the boy who looked at her full of surprise and wonder. He probably had assumed he would stay alone with none of the other kids wanting anything to do with him.

Alex smiled brightly at him and held out her hand. "I'm Alexandra but everyone just calls me Alex. What's your name?"

"I…I'm Harry. It's nice to meet you Alex."

"We are gonna be best friends Harry! I just know it."

That finally made the boy next to her smile a little bit. Alex wanted to keep talking to him. To ask him about his family, about what he liked to do in his free time, where he lived and if he wanted to go swimming with her on the weekends. But before she had a chance to open her mouth again their teacher told them to quiet down and began explaining how school would work and what they were going to learn.

When the first day of school was over and Alex was sitting at the kitchen table, watching her mother make dinner, she couldn't help but wonder how Harry might be right now. It had only taken her three lessons to learn that Harry's parents had died in a horrible car accident when he was still little and that he was now living with his aunt and uncle as well as his cousin Dudley. Dudley seemed to hate him which became evident when he tried to steel Harry's lunch money because he couldn't buy enough with his own.

Alex had defended her new friend and begrudgingly Dudley had left them alone and got one of his new friends to lend him some money for food.

After school Alex had learnt, that Harry lived right across the street but that he wouldn't be allowed to have friends over because his aunt believed he didn't need or deserve friends. All those things the small boy had told her made her very angry at his relatives and she vowed that she would do her best to make her new best friend's life better. Now she only needed to find a way to convince her parents to work with her, maybe even Sunny could help. Once she got Harry to believe in anything magic and the good it could do he wouldn't be scared and scream when Sunny would pop into his room to deliver some much needed food or new clothes that actually fit or something like that.

With a dozen plans in her mind Alex got to bed that same night with a smile on her face. Not knowing that the small boy Harry across the street was lying with an equal smile painted on his lips in a cupboard beneath the stairs. Never before in his life had the little boy been that happy, not even his furious uncle when he learnt he didn't give his money to Dudley when he had still been hungry today and therefore sending Harry to bed without dinner or the new bunch of spiders that had invaded his small cupboard room under the stairs could dent his happiness. Alex was not like the other girls in the class but she also wasn't like one of the boys. She had such a wide imagination and stubbornness that made her unique in Harry's eyes. He just hoped she wouldn't soon get bored by him or get scared of Dudley and leave him alone like everybody else had done that day once they had learnt that Dudley was his cousin and couldn't stand him.

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 **Please let me know what you think. *puppy eyes***


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I hope I'm not leaving out to much but I wanted to get to the really interesting parts a bit faster^^ Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **Two years later**

It was the first time since going to school and making her first real friend that Alex felt scared and out of place. Yesterday had been the first day of their third school year and the first time for sports at school. Alex had forgotten that she wasn't like all the other girls in her class and had simply changed like everyone else. Only when it got silent around her and all the girls had been staring at her or rather her lower parts became she aware of her differences again. She had panicked and ran away, not even stopping to tell the worried teacher where she was going. Harry had been confused as well but she hadn't stopped to tell him anything either and today would show her if the other girls had spilled her well-kept secret and how the others would react to it. Mainly she worried about Harry and if he now thought of her as a freak as well.

It didn't take too long after she stepped foot onto the school ground when the students from her class began pointing at her and whispering a bit too loudly so that she was able to hear every word they were saying. They were calling her a freak and were wondering if she was a boy wanting to be a girl or something not exactly human.

When she felt the tears in her eyes she quickened her pace but apparently not enough because when she was just next to the small group of trees near the playground, Dudley and his usual group of peers grabbed her and pulled her out of sight from the teachers. Others from her class appeared as well just to watch what would happen, even those who normally wouldn't participate in Dudley's cruel power plays.

She felt two of the boys grab hold of her upper arms so that she wasn't capable of doing anything at all and then Dudley stood before her, a sneer across his face.

"I heard you are nearly as much a freak as my cousin. I think it is time for everyone to see just how much of a freak you are, don't you agree guys?"

His peers all nodded with the imitation of Dudley's sneer on their faces. The plumb boy surged forwards and faster than Alex ever would've thought possible pulled down her pants. The whole class was now staring at her boxers which hid at least some part of her. She assumed it was better than being completely naked in front of everyone but still the tears began rolling down her cheeks. She never had felt so humiliated and to be honest she also never felt like she was different from all the other girls in her class.

Cruel laughter sounded in her ears and the stares of the rest of the class bore into her, so that she as well might have been naked before them.

"A total freak. I bet your parents are ashamed of you freak, aren't they? You shouldn't be allowed to even exist, you're not natural."

Before Dudley could sprout more lies and hurt her more he suddenly stumbled back, holding his broken nose. Harry had appeared in front of her and hit him as hard as he could in the face. Now he whirled around and yelled at the two boys holding her: "Let her go you jackasses. I always knew you were cruel but I never thought you would go so far as becoming criminals."

Scared the boys let go and hurried away, not even caring to help a still whining Dudley to his feet. The rest of the class now stared at the ground as if it was suddenly very interesting and a few even mumbled apologies. Then they too disappeared, leaving Alex alone with a still furious Harry and a moaning and bleeding Dudley. She was still crying and probably wouldn't be able to stop very soon. Just on the brink of her mind did she register that Harry pulled up her pants again and wiped away her tears with the sleeve of his shirt. All the while he kept muttering calming nonsense to her and pulled her away from the crying Dudley and towards the school nursery.

Only when she began to feel remotely safe again was her mind able to comprehend what happened and she threw herself at Harry in a fierce hug that had the boy stumbling backwards until he hit one of the cots that were standing around the room for sick children.

"You don't think I'm a freak too?"

"Why would I ever think that Alex?"

"Well because I'm different from the other girls in the class and everyone else seems to do so."

At that Harry chuckled lightly into her hair and pushed her back a bit so that he could look into her eyes and then answered: "I'm not like the others myself and even if I don't think I understand completely why your body is different that doesn't mean you aren't my friend anymore, because you are and nothing will ever change that. Especially not something as unimportant as your looks."

Alex never would have expected such sentiment from Harry but it seemed like he had been holding back all the time, obviously not quite trusting her up until this point. In that moment Alex decided that it was time to tell Harry about her parents and magic and how the weird things happening around him were perfectly normal for a magical child his age.

Before she got the chance however the school nurse burst into the room, closely followed by her enraged mother and the school director. After her mother had checked her over for injuries twice and finally calmed down a bit she had to tell what happened to the parents. Harry added his part and after a small moment of silence the director sighed, apologized deeply and promised to have talks with all the directly involved children and their parents as well as make an appearance in their class during the day to explain to the children that someone isn't different or a freak just because their looks are unfamiliar.

For a moment Alex feared that her mother wouldn't allow her to come back to school because she had been against the idea from day one, but she seemed impressed by Harry's behavior and maybe she would even be willing to help Alex explain magic to the boy. It looked like the Dursley's had no knowledge about it or were unwilling to help the young boy out.

Alex only had time for a quick wave when her mother simply carried her out of the school and into the car they only had to keep up their Muggle appearances. The whole way home she kept silently muttering to herself how small minded Muggles could be and that she hated them all.

"Mom, why am I so different from all the other girls?"

Alex had never asked that before because she never thought of herself as truly different until yesterday. Her mother stopped mid rant and then opened and closed her mouth a few times without actually making a sound. It wasn't until they were seated at the kitchen table, both with a hot cocoa in front of them, that she was able to gather her thoughts and quietly began explaining what Alex condition was and how it came to be.

"In the magical world there aren't just the two genders of male and female. There is also a mixed form most just refer to as Halflings. They possess both male and female anatomy. The base body is always that of a female with the genitals of a male and the person normally also always refers to it as a She. In the Muggle world there is also a word for people like you. They call them Hermaphrodites but nearly no one knows about their existence and even if they do they don't know that it is possible for them to have fully grown sexual parts."

When Alex looked at her mother funny and began to open her mouth to ask her why Muggles were so stupid her mother raised a hand and muttered: "Don't ask me why, I don't know."

Then she continued on with her original explanation: "There aren't that many Halflings in the magical world for the chance of the unique combination of DNA and magic that is needed to produce something as special as you just doesn't happen very often. Due to their special nature Halflings are very powerful magical beings. During the rise of the last Dark Lord many of them were killed out of fear. If I'm not mistaken there are currently only four hundred Halflings all over the world."

Alex couldn't help but feel saddened at the aspect of her being nearly alone in the world with her condition but the fact that it was almost normal in the wizarding society gave her the strength which had been taken from her earlier in the day where she had felt so small and alone in the world like never before.

About twenty minutes after school had ended that day there was a frantic knock on the door and when her mother came back into the living room where they had been talking about well-known Halflings throughout the ages, Harry was scrambling in right behind her, a pile of papers in his hands and a nervous smile across his lips. As soon as he saw Alex without tears in her eyes and her normal behavior in place he seemed to relax a bit and gave her a small hug once he plopped down on the sofa next to her.

"The director spoke to the class in our last lesson and explained some things as well as reprimanded them. There were letters given to all the boys who helped Dudley assault you and detention for two weeks. Some of the girls looked especially small in their chairs, I guess they were the ones who told all the others. Rachel, the blonde one who sits next to you in art asked me to tell you that she doesn't have a problem with you being different and that she would like to be your friend if you would like to."

Alex laughed and held up her hand, similar to when her mother had done so earlier to stop her best friends ramble. He must have been really nervous about how she would see him now that he knew about her secret and everything that happened the other day.

"As long as you still want to be my friend I really don't care what the others think and if Rachel is okay with being both our friend then I think I would like to get to know her better."

Harry nodded enthusiastically and finally handed her the papers he had clutched to his chest the entire time. They were worksheets from their classes and the homework the teachers had given them. Alex looked them through and asked him a few questions when she couldn't grasp the subject immediately.

When Harry began to gather his things again and was ready to leave again Alex looked to her mother shortly to make sure it was okay what she was about to do and when she received a short nod she grabbed her best friends hand and pulled him down again.

"There is something else I wanted to tell you because now that you know the biggest secret of me I thought it was only fair if I told you about the rest as well."

Harry eyed her with a hint of confusion but settled down again and listened intently when she began to explain about the magical world and how it was hidden right under the noses of the non-magical people. Her mother picked up where she left off and explained about the last war between dark and light and what role his parents had played in that war, how he came to be an orphan and had to live with his Muggle relatives for his own protection.

Harry seemed to not really believe anything they were telling him, so Alex' mother explained about the uncontrollable outbursts of magic young children had before they were old enough to go to a magical school where they'd be taught control and everything else they needed to know. Alex knew that Harry had had some of those because she had witnessed some of them.

When Harry slowly began nodding along with what her mother described as normal and possible forms of this accidental magic Alex called for Sunny. The elf appeared with a quiet pop in front of her and asked what she could do. Harry gave a very girlish shriek and jumped at least a foot in the air. The elf looked at him worriedly, not even considering that the boy could be frightened of her.

It took half the afternoon to get Harry to truly believe in magic and then there were at least a hundred questions he had about his parents and himself because there was no use in trying to hide that he was more than just a bit famous in the wizarding community.

When every last question had been answered and Alex had promised to help him learn more so that he wouldn't look like a complete fool on his first day in this new world he had always been a part of Harry finally left the Blackstone's house and hurried over to number four where his aunt no doubt was waiting for him to start making dinner. His uncle would surely be demanding an explanation for what had happened that day and why they had received a letter from school about Dudley and not him, for he was the freak of the family and not their darling son whom they saw only as a sweet angel.

* * *

 **Two and a half years later**

With a resounding bang the doors of the school burst open and a mass of students scrambled out. Everyone was shouting excitedly and some were looking for parents or friends above the heads of the other students. It was the last day of school before the summer holidays and for Alex and Harry that meant the last day of elementary school. They had survived the years by sticking together and practicing running a lot, some accidental bursts of their magic also had been helpful.

Dudley and his peers harbored a deep hatred towards them after the day they got detention and a meeting with the director and their parents after exposing and assaulting Alex like they did in the school yard. They were bigger and much heavier than the two best friends but they weren't very good at running and so the two had taken up the sport after the second time they found themselves in the school nursery with bleeding noses, lips and bruises across their bodies. It had been of no use telling the director who was responsible because for every extra detention the boys got, a new beating had been waiting for them, mostly a lot worse than the one which had gotten them the detention in the first place.

Now however was not the time to think about Dudley and all the other stupid boys in their class because Alex' mother was waiting for them in the car to take them for ice-cream as a small celebration for the good grades they received in their last exams. It was also less than three weeks that Harry and Alex both would be celebrating their eleventh birthday and hopefully receive their acceptance letter from Hogwarts. Harry had decided to stay over at Alex' for the duration of his birthday and the following weekend so that no stray owls who would be delivering his letter could get into the hands of Mr. or Mrs. Dursley and do something rather drastic.

When they reached the ice parlor Alex' mother allowed them each a huge cup of ice-cream, more than either of the pre-teens ever ate in their life.

"When your letters arrive I think it will be best if I try to explain everything to Petunia over a cup of tea. It might be that she will faint or scream bloody murder but I believe that would still be better than you telling her and Vernon by yourself Harry. I will also offer to take you in over the breaks and to buy your school supplies if she doesn't want anything to do with magic ever again in her life."

Harry nodded reluctantly. It still wasn't easy for him to accept help from others without them wanting something in return. Alex smiled at him encouragingly and added: "I bet it will be lots of fun doing the shopping together. I haven't been to Diagon Alley myself yet and well you know how much contact I've had with the wizarding world in general."

At that Harry couldn't help but laugh. He had met Alex' slightly deranged aunt, the older sister of her mother who had suffered in the last war under Grindelwald and therefore lost quite a bit of her sanity. Next to the crazy aunt there was only her father's family and they didn't want anything to do with her or her parents because to them a Halfling was no acceptable heir to an ancient family. The thought how much his brilliant and very magical friend was being shunned by her own family made him think about his haywire magic and a sliver of doubt began creeping into his mind. Before he could help it he just spluttered: "Do you really believe I will get a letter? I mean I haven't had any accidental magic in the last year so maybe I'm not good enough to get into Hogwarts."

Alex wanted to yell at her friend for still doubting his worth and that he must be stupid to believe he had no magic but her mother was faster and calmly stated: "The amount of accidental magic a child produces has nothing to do with their capability of magic but rather their temper and how good they can control their emotions. You have learnt a lot in the last year and began ignoring your relatives which helped you control any eventual outbursts you might've had."

Harry scrunched his eyebrows in confusion but eventually he nodded and brightened up a bit. "So if I lose control of my emotions it could happen that I turn Dudley into a pig? Because that would be just hilarious and I've been thinking about his resemblance of one for quite some time now."

Alex burst out laughing but her mother send both of them a reprimanding look and so they rather shut up instead of risking one of her truly terrifying rants about proper behavior.

With all the tension cleared they began talking excitedly about their birthdays coming up. Alex was exactly three days older and wanted to wait for her celebration once Harry had turned eleven as well.

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 **Please don't forget to R &R. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I know the Chapter is a lot shorter than the last ones but I didn't want to keep you waiting so long^^ Enjoy! The Weekend is coming up and the next chapter will be with you shortly.**

* * *

It happened just as Harry was about to take a bite out of his bacon the morning of his eleventh birthday. He had spent the night at Alex' and surprisingly the Dursleys had allowed him to stay for the next two days, the weekend, as well. With a loud crash a big barn owl landed in front of him in the middle of the table. Eggs, Bacon and sliced fruit flew everywhere and all four people gathered around the table let out various sounds of surprise.

The owl hooted tiredly and Alex would've sworn even a bit apologetically. Her mother finally got over the shock of the owls arrival and began cleaning the mess it made up with her wand. Harry watched awed as he always did so it was Alex who scooped the owl up from the table, gave it a piece of her bacon and detached the heavy package the owl had been carrying. On top was a tiny scrawl in neat and feminine handwriting that said: _Alexandra Blackstone and Harry Potter, Privet Drive 5, Kitchen, Little Whinging_.

"It's for both of us Harry and it must be some witch or wizard."

Harry finally managed to tear his eyes from the magic Alex' mother was performing and stared excitedly at the package instead. With a short look both friends simultaneously began tearing off the wrapping paper and gaped at what they saw inside. There were all sorts of wizarding sweets and two unmistakable letters on top of them.

Alex' let out a very girlish and uncharacteristic squeal and couldn't open her letter fast enough. The same handwriting which had adorned the package was filling the two pages in front of her.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

 _Dear Ms. Blackstone,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

 _P.S.: The sweets are a birthday gift to both you and Mr. Potter from Albus Dumbledore and myself._

 _Yours sincerely,_

Minerva McGonagall

 _Deputy Headmistress_

The second page didn't even manage to gain her attention once her brain registered that all her worrying had an end. She finally held her letter of acceptance in her hands and all the happiness and excitement rushing through her made her head spin. By now Harry too had opened his letter and was beaming at her with such a bright smile that she thought it might split his face.

"I take it those are your Hogwarts letters?" Her mother's voice brought them back from their happy daze.

Alex nodded, grinning at her parents and handed the letter to her father who held the piece of parchment between him and her mother so that both would be able to read what it contained. Now her eyes fell onto the second piece of parchment that included all the necessary things they would need during their first year and partly also the years to come.

Her eyes raked over the page and a feeling of giddiness started to bloom in her chest. She couldn't wait for her first ever trip to Diagon Alley in London with all the glorious shops it held.

Again she read the list in front of her, paying special interest to all the books they would need. She loved reading and magical topics were her favorite. It was always a fight between her and her mother who wouldn't let her read everything she wanted to in their own personal little library.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

UNIFORM

First year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black)

One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

 _Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags_

SET BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

 _The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_ by Miranda Goshawk

 _A History of Magic_ by Bathilda Bagshot

 _Magical Theory_ by Adalbert Waffling

 _A Beginner´s Guide to Transfiguration_ by Emeric Switch

 _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ by Phyllida Spore

 _Magical Drafts and Potions_ by Arsenius Jigger

 _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ by Newt Scamander

 _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_ by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS.

Her father had told her about wizarding London on more than a few occasions when he had been there work related or needed to buy some new things. He always held the bookstore in high regards and while their schoolbooks no doubt would be interesting and necessary to learn she couldn't wait to see what else they might have there that her parents would allow her to purchase.

"Do you think the Dursley's will let me get a pet? They never even fancy Aunt Marge's dogs when she brought them along for dinner."

"Oh don't worry about that sweetie, Peter and me thought about how your new life in the wizarding world could be eased a bit for you and decided to talk to your relatives after the weekend. I think they won't be too opposed to the idea of you spending your time here, there would be no reason whatsoever for them to want to keep you under their own roof."

"Really? You would let me live here?"

The excited voice of her best friend brought Alex' back from her dreams about magical books and what she would be able to learn from them.

She had heard her parents talk about Harry and how his life with the Dursley's was not how it was supposed to be for any child. However she never thought that her mother would actually succeed in convincing her father to take the boy in as if he were a child of their own. He always argued that they were not cut out to raise a boy with such a troubled past. He had feared that if Harry had nightmares they wouldn't be able to keep them out or that he would never feel fully accepted into the family because he was too old already to believe that they could replace his real parents.

"You could get the guest room right next to my room. Maybe we could even build a secret door between them, so that we can always get to the other the fastest."

Her father's awkward cough told her that such a door would never happen. Apparently even with her special anatomy he would not stand for his little girl having an unguarded door directly into the room of another boy who would soon reach his puberty.

Harry was still gaping at Alex' parents as if he was waiting for someone to tell him that the suggestion had been a bad joke.

"Well, when are we going to Diagon Alley? I don't want to have to fight my way through masses of other kids when we want to take a look at the familiars or when we wait to get our wand sorted."

Her father laughed at her discomfort of large groups of people and assured her that they would go the next morning bright and early when the shops had barely opened.

"How will I be paying for all those things that I need?"

Harry finally snapped out of his daze and was once again able to partake in the conversation. Alex had to remind herself that her friend didn't know about Gringotts and the money witches and wizards used for payment. He also probably had no idea that his parents had left him a vault full of money. It was no secret that the Potter family had been one of the wealthy ones and his parents never got the chance to spend the money during the war and no one had touched it since their deaths.

"I suppose we will have to make a quick stop at Gringotts first to get your money Harry. Don't worry though, your parents vault will hold enough to pay for everything you will need this year and the ones to come. Normally you would need a specially crafted key to access your vault but due to the fact that the key was destroyed in the house of your parents the Goblins will forge a new one for you."

Alex' father, Peter Blackstone, winked at the flabbergasted boy and added thoughtfully: "Don't let the goblins fool you boy. They look a lot nastier than they actually are although I wouldn't want to try and steal something from them, a thief never made it out alive of a quarrel with a goblin."

Harry didn't really look like that statement took away his worries so Alex nudged him lightly and whispered: "Goblins are really funny little creatures who think very highly of themselves. When you treat them with respect they will continue to surprise you with their actions. I met a goblin once when I visited dad at work. He appeared to be lost and when I helped him without him having to ask first he extended his gratitude in sending me a personally forged ring for my next birthday."

"Can I see the ring? I think you never showed it to me before."

Alex grinned. It could be so easy sometimes to distract Harry from his worry or other plaguing thoughts. She just hoped it would continue to be this easy after they got to Hogwarts and every single one of the student body would know who he was and talk about him. There was no doubt in her mind that Harry would be affected by all the talk and she didn't want it going to his head. He needed to keep a level head as well as his calm and understanding personality.

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 **Don't forget to let me know what you think of this Story :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I decided to let Hermione make an early appearance. Hope you like it!**

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Harry had been very impressed with the forged iron ring Alex had shown him last evening and after three more hours of talking about magic and Hogwarts he had finally fallen asleep on the makeshift bed they had built on the floor next to her own bunk. Now it was very early morning and Alex was blinking the sleep from her eyes, desperately trying to shake her body awake and to register what was going on.

Harry was already wide awake and fully clothed, staring at her expectantly with wide eyes.

"Wha'?"

"Get up Alex, your parents said we will leave in thirty minutes."

"Why?"

"To get our stuff from Diagon Alley. We are taking the car, your mother wants to run some errand in the muggle part of London and it would be suspicious to go there without a car."

Now Alex was a bit more awake. "But what about breakfast?" she whined. She knew how long the trip to London would take them and if she had to be in the car in thirty minutes there was no way she would get something to eat first.

"Your father said we would eat at the Leaky Cauldron. Whatever that is."

Her best friend still could be a little bit naïve when it came to scrutinize what adults told him. This early in the morning however Alex didn't have the nerve to tease him about it. Instead she just stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom to get ready for the day. Harry just grinned when he saw her in her batman boxers. The first time he had actually seen her in boy's underwear he had been embarrassed and turned five shades of red because he still thought of her as a simple girl. It had been a rather awkward talk they shared with Alex explaining how she felt about her body and why it was possible to want to be viewed as a girl in whole but having more than one boyish tendency.

When she left the bathroom still only in her boxers there was no awkwardness that could be detected and her best friend didn't turn away while she changed into her clothes. Instead he squinted his eyebrows together in thought and asked: "In which dormitory will you go in Hogwarts? Are there extra ones for people like your or will you get sorted with the other girls?"

For a moment Alex stilled in pulling her shirt above her head and thought about that question. She hadn't really paid any mind to such technicalities before and feared that she might be branded as a boy when it came to dormitories and she didn't want to be one of the guys.

"I don't know Harry. Maybe there's a book about Hogwarts where we will be able to find such information. I don't think my parents will know that and honestly I don't really want to ask them. You know how my mother can be."

Harry nodded and made a grimace as if remembering one of the more embarrassing moments he had been a part of when Mrs. Blackstone decided to let her possessively protective side show. Giggling at his stupid face Alex finally finished dressing and just managed to grab the list with all the needed things that they got yesterday, before Harry pulled her downstairs and into the living room where her parents were sitting, drinking the last sips of coffee.

Her mother smiled warmly at them and gave them both a good morning hug. Then she proceeded to shoo them into the car and turned around slightly to make sure they had fastened their seatbelts correctly. Mr. Blackstone was driving and silently humming a tune to himself and Mrs. Blackstone was rereading a list she wrote for the things she needed to buy, so Harry and Alex were left to their own devices.

"Do you think the people will recognize me in the wizarding world?"

"I don't know. Probably if they see your scar but if you wear your hair like you usually do it isn't visible most of the time so I don't think you have to worry about that. Besides you're with me and my parents and they won't let anyone bother you."

"I hope no one will recognize me. What your parents told me about what happened after my parents died and it became common knowledge that I defeated Lord Voldemort doesn't sound like anything near the truth at all."

Alex snorted lightly. That was the understatement of the year. Her best friend was mentioned in more than one of the modern history books and a lot of available magazines from that time. None of them told what really happened but speculated how a small boy had held so much power to defeat the Dark Lord. Harry was made into a hero he wasn't and didn't want to be.

* * *

 **At the same time somewhere else in England**

A fragile looking girl with a huge mess of brown hair on top of her head was sitting at the kitchen table trying to simultaneously read a book and eat her cereals. More often than not she missed her mouth with the spoon and the milk would slosh back into the bowl or onto the table. Her mother sighed at her antics but didn't even try to chastise her for it, for it normally held no effect.

When the doorbell rung suddenly the girl looked up from her book and surprised not only her parents but herself when she declared that she would get it and nearly sprinted from the kitchen.

On the other side of the door stood a stern looking woman in a well-fitting business suit and her black hair pulled up into a tight bun. Her whole demeanor made the girl want to run back to her mother and hide behind her but then the woman smiled brilliantly at her and introduced herself as Minerva McGonagall.

"Do you think you could take me to your parents dear? There are some very important things I wish to speak with them about."

The little girl hesitated for a moment but soon enough decided that the woman looked non-threatening enough and led her back towards the kitchen. Her parents straightened themselves as soon as the woman entered the room and introduced themselves as well. The girl feared that she would be send away soon enough by her father but before anything like that could happen the woman declared: "I am here to offer your daughter Hermione a place at our school. Hogwarts is a boarding school for young people with special abilities. I'm sure you've noticed some rather strange things happening around your daughter over the last years?"

A tense silence fell over the room and the girl looked between her parents and the strange woman so fast she got a bit dizzy by the motion. When it appeared obvious her mother was slightly shocked and her father was brewing his anger she quickly intervened.

"They don't like to talk about the strange things that happen every time I feel scared or angry. Once I transported myself on top of my school when the bullies were chasing me across the school yard."

"That is a very impressive show of accidental magic my dear. Because you child are a witch. I am too and everyone else going to Hogwarts will have equal magical powers. What you and your parents experienced is quite normal for a witch your age. It is as a matter of fact the way your powers begin to show themselves and register you with the Ministry of Magic and at the nearest wizarding school."

Hermione nearly bounced in her seat with all the joy and excitement she felt at being told that she wasn't a freak, just a witch. With all the things she could do she sometimes had wondered if she might have something like magic. Only every time she had asked her mother about it she had told her that there was no magic in the real world and that not all of her books were accurate.

"I'm sorry Miss but I don't think our daughter will be visiting your school. She is perfectly normal and everybody knows that there is no magic in the world. That is just a tale we tell our children to make the holidays seem more special."

Minerva McGonagall furrowed her brow and looked directly at the stern man. He was slightly red in his face and his clenched fists told her that it was out of anger and not embarrassment, so she chose her next words very carefully.

"I can assure you that I am not lying Mr. Granger. If you so require I am willing to show you some simple spell that will make you believe. It can be of your choosing. "

At first it looked like the man was going to decline and ask her to leave his house but his wife seemed more willing to let herself be convinced and simply stated: "Make Hermione's hair smooth."

Hermione looked at her mother aghast. She knew it had always been an impossible task to tame her wild mane of hair and if the woman would be able to manage to do that it would prove to not be a simple trick like her father was waiting for.

The stern woman chuckled lightly, a sound that seemed misplaced compared to her appearance and then took out a small wooden stick from her pocket. Hermione stared at it in wonder when the woman waved it and mumbled something under her breath that sounded a lot like the Latin vocabularies she learned last semester. There was a light tickling sensation rushing over her scalp and the loud gasp her mother expressed told her it had been successful even before she reached out a hand to delicately touch her now smooth hair.

"The spell won't last forever but if you wish to maintain the state your hair is currently in there is a potion available for witches to use instead of shampoo that has the same effect."

"Mom, can I please go to this school? Please?" Hermione tried her best puppy dog eyes because she really wanted to go there. Maybe the other kids wouldn't make fun of her or worse be afraid of her due to the strange things happening around her and her love for books and learning.

Her mother eyed her hair carefully and then the stern Professor in the arm chair. Finally she turned to her husband and simply raised a shaped eyebrow.

With a deep sigh he nodded towards his daughter and was rewarded with a loud squeal and a tight hug which he normally only received when he brought home a new challenging book for her to read.

"If you can promise me nothing bad will happen to her and that she will learn to control that magic of hers then I will allow my daughter to attend your school."

Minerva McGonagall nodded her thanks to him but Hermione would swear she saw the woman's lips curve upwards into a little smirk. As soon as it appeared the smirk vanished and in its stead was the stern woman who had stood before her when she opened the door.

"Very well, then I assume we be on our way to Diagon Alley in London were you will be able to get all the things you'll need for school and maybe some books about muggle born witches and wizards."

"Oh yes please!" Hermione was already out of her seat and halfway out of the door when her future Professor called her back with an amused note in her voice and explained that they would travel via floo powder which was a substance one threw into the flames of a fire place, step into them and announce the place they wanted to go. Her parents looked a bit green at that notion and her father readily announced that shopping was more for women than men and that he would simply stay at home and wait for their return. His wife gave him a glare but said nothing and instead accepted a handful of green powder which Minerva McGonagall had handed to her.

"Just throw it into the flames and wait until they turn green. You won't feel a thing once you step inside and then you'll have to say `Leaky Cauldron´, the place we are going to."

Mrs. Granger nodded and did as the older witch instructed. When it came to the stepping into the flames part she took a very deep breath and then made one large step right into the middle of the green flames. To her great relief she really felt no heat and stated as clearly as she was able to the destination she wanted to go. She felt herself spin out of the fire place and then through a row of them from the way it looked until she finally stopped inside one that was fairly large and old. It led into an almost empty pub and while she dusted her clothes off the soot from her unusual journey Mrs. Granger asked herself to which place she had just agreed in taking her daughter too.

Before she had much time to ponder that thought though Hermione came flying out of the fire place and directly into her mother's arms. She giggles excitedly and looked like she would go again in an instant. Thankfully the Professor who had agreed to help them with the shopping and their overall introduction into the magical world appeared next to them. With a swift movement of her wand all the soot vanished from their clothing and they looked presentable again. The woman simply smiled. "I'm afraid that happens every time one uses the floo network. "

"It's still really cool. Like riding on a roller coaster at the fair."

It looked like Professor McGonagall was about to ask what exactly a fair was but she was interrupted by a younger woman with dark wild curls and a beaming smile on her face.

"Minerva, how are you? I haven't seen you in years. If you won't mind you just have to join us for breakfast."

Hermione eyed the foreign woman curiously and then looked at the stern woman who had brought them here. She seemed like she didn't quite know what to do, so she nudged her mother and exclaimed: "I think I could use another small snack, I didn't even get to finish my cereals at home."

Minerva McGonagall looked at her gratefully and smiled at the younger woman in return. "If you don't mind me bringing my new charge with me then I would love to have breakfast with you my dear. But tell me, what are you doing here at such an early hour?"

"Oh I'm taking my daughter and her best friend shopping for the upcoming term. I'd think your new charge would happen to be one of their future classmates."

Hermione brightened up at the prospect of meeting some of her new fellow pupils and tugged her mother with her behind the two witches. She didn't see her mother's warm smile or the small smirk on her Professor's face but she did see two children about her age and a tall broad shouldered man sitting in a small booth.

If the woman hadn't told them that one of the children was her daughter Hermione would have thought both of them to be boys. One had unruly black hair that was cut fairly short but still managed to stick out in every which way and the other had short curly hair the color of mahogany leaves that was only slightly longer than that of the other child.

Hermione stared at them a bit and deducted that the one with the curly hair had to be the girl. She had the same hair as the woman who had greeted Professor McGonagall so enthusiastically and a bit more defined facial features.

Not one to let the appearance of a person make an impression on her Hermione smiled a bit shyly and sat next to the two on one side of the booth. Her mother and Professor McGonagall took both of the head sides of the table and after the customary introductions they all ordered.

"Do you know much already about magic?" Hermione finally dared to ask the two friends next to her.

The girl whose name was Alex grinned slightly and shook her head.

"My parents are both magical but they always kept it to a minimum at the house, saying that it would be better for me to learn as much as I could about the Muggle world why I still had a chance to do so. I'm glad they did too. Otherwise I never would've met Harry and he is the best friend one could wish for. His relatives are real jerks though."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I think my father also doesn't like the idea of magic that much. He refused to come after Professor McGonagall told us we would use the fire place and the floo network."

The girl next to her grinned even brighter than before and nodded her head. "That shouldn't make you think he doesn't want anything to do with magic. Traveling through fire places can be a bit scary at first. I still don't like it and Harry always gets green around his nose when he uses it."

That made the shy black haired boy next to her shout out his protest and Hermione let out a brilliant laugh. She hoped she would get into the same classes as those two, they seemed nice enough to try and be friends with. It would also be her first friends and she hoped she had made the right decision in choosing them. The Professor seemed to know and like Alex' parents though so the two friends couldn't be too bad.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I used a bit of pottermore in this chapter to come up with good enough ideas for the wands, hope you don't mind.**

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Alex had been a bit skeptical when her mother had come back with a stern looking woman who she remembered to be one of her future Professors and two strangers she had never seen before. Soon enough though she decided that she actually rather liked the girl who seemed to be a bit shy but very intelligent. She would probably be her best choice at talking about books and learning with for classes because as much as she liked Harry he never had been good at sitting still for longer periods of time.

While the adults talked about work related things and something a man called Hagrid would be doing this day, the kids discussed the different houses and what it would be like to learn magic.

"I can't wait to see what kind of stores there are in Diagon Alley. My mother told me a bit about them and sometimes she brought back new clothes but I bet there are much more interesting stores located there. What kind of stores are you looking forward to?" Alex asked both Harry and their new friend Hermione.

"Well…I'm really curious about the goblins at the bank and I want to get an owl, so the bank and the owl shop for me I guess." Harry grinned and continued stuffing his face with pancakes.

Hermione blushed a light shade of pink when Alex turned her way and then mumbled something that sounded very much like books but Alex couldn't be sure.

"What was that? I think I didn't quite catch it."

"I…I said I was looking forward to the book store Professor McGonagall said would be there. I just figured it would be good to do some reading ahead because of me being muggleborn and all."

"And here I thought I finally met someone who loved books as much as I do." Alex sighed dramatically and giggled when she saw the panicked and shocked look on the other girls face.

"Don't worry I was only kidding. Well, I do love books but I know you were just trying to avoid being teased in case I didn't and that's totally okay. Harry teases me all the time when I pay more attention to a book than to him."

The boy in question simply rolled his eyes, his mouth to full to try and say something.

Hermione smiled a small smile and Alex felt herself sitting straighter like she just accomplished something she could be proud of. She was acting a bit weird near the other girl and hoped she didn't notice. Harry was her only friend and he was a boy, it would be great having a girl as a friend too. There were some things in life she would never ever speak to Harry about even if some part of them was the same.

At that point it didn't take long for everyone to finish eating and the adults ushering the children out through a back door and into a small and with all of them very cramped backyard. Hermione looked very irritated at the place and her mother had quite a similar look planted on her face. Alex knew there probably was something magic back here which would lead them into the magical shopping street.

Her father who was nearest to the brick wall making up the end of the small backyard took out his wand, looked at the wall in concentration and then simply tipped five stones in a seemingly random order. As soon as he finished the stones began moving and forming an arch that marked the entrance into Diagon Alley. It was truly a magnificent sight.

Even this early in the morning every shop was open and a few wizards and witches were walking in different states of hurry between them. At the end of Diagon Alley were two other streets began stood the impressive sight of the goblin bank in white marble.

"Oh my god, this is incredible. Why didn't you take me here sooner mom?"

"For exactly that reason Alex. The first trip to Diagon Alley is always magical in itself and I wouldn't want to take the chance away from you really being able to appreciate that. I also thought you might want to experience this with Harry together for the first time as you do with everything else."

Alex couldn't help but blush slightly and cast a quick look to Hermione to see if she felt left out because of that comment. She didn't need to worry though as Hermione was completely absorbed in the sight before her and was trying to register every single shop there was from their slightly alleviated point of view.

"Well we better start at the bank and figure out a plan which shops to take first and if we are going to split up."

"A wise idea Mr. Blackstone, we should move out of the Arch, it isn't safe to keep it open for too long."

With that notion the three children burst forward and raced towards the white building at the end of the street. None of them were willing to wait longer than they absolutely had to before they could explore all the fascinating shops all around them. There was a fairly big apothecary with more potion ingredients anyone could probably need but Alex wanted to look at them all and ask questions about the interesting ones.

When they finally came to a stop at the base of the stairs leading towards the bank all three of them for the first time in their life came face to face with a goblin. The creature was nearly as tall as Alex, the tallest of the three with roughly five foot and had grey-green skin that looked like leather with large and pointed ears. His hair was almost white and his black eyes looked wise and calculating. Hermione gasped out loud once she took everything about the goblin in and Harry simply blinked curiously.

"Good morning Sir, is the bank opened yet or do we have to wait out here?" Alex decided that a friendly approach was their best option and to their great surprise the demeanor of the goblin instantly changed into something welcoming and nearly warm when he heard the respectful approach.

"Gringotts never closes young Miss, if you wish Grook can take you inside and show you to the key master."

Alex quickly looked over her shoulder and seeing her parents as well as Professor McGonagall and Hermione's mother only about two meters away she smiled and nodded in thanks to the goblin, not realizing what she just accomplished.

The goblin named Grook opened the heavy door for the three friends and said in his deep croaking voice: "The halls of Gringotts are older than Merlin himself and the safest place in the wizarding world. Thieves won't get far here, if the vaults don't swallow them then the dragons on the deeper levels or our guards will get them before they can take even the smallest coin."

Harry looked slightly green at the mention of dragons under his feet and Hermione seemed to be intrigued about the magic of the vaults. Then her face changed as if she just remembered something and with worry apparent in her voice she asked: "Can Muggleborns also get a vault here or change some money?"

"Of course, the fee for changing is exceptionally low this week so you might want to change some in advance and put it into your vault. You only need to pay for the key which will be forged so that only you are able to use it. Normally the vaults require a monthly fee as well but as you are only a student you won't have to pay them, Hogwarts will until you graduate."

Hermione's shoulders sagged in relief and then they reached the main hall were goblins were bustling around mumbling in their own language. Tall counters lined the walls on two sides, the other one held openings were carts waited to take their occupants down to the vaults.

The adults finally pulled up with the children and looked on in astonishment as the goblin lead them across the hall to the biggest counter in the whole room and announced: "The key-master of Gringotts, Griph. He will validate your keys and then I will take you down to your vaults." Then he turned towards Hermione and added "You young Miss will have to go over to the fourth counter on the left where Frick will change your muggle money and assign you your own vault."

The other goblin had looked up when he had been introduced by one of his colleagues and furrowed his brow deeply when he spied Grook, one of the nastier ones of his race, in company of three children and a bunch of adults. Griph was intrigued, those humans had to be different and he would find out how.

When the only wizard stepped up to his desk once the Muggleborns had left for the different counter he drawled out: "Keys please."

Mr. Blackstone reached into his pocket and presented the goblin with two very small and unique keys. One was very intricately crafted with a small gem in its head while the other one was rather plain and older looking. Griph eyed both keys carefully. He noticed his uncle's handiwork on the intricate one and the other had thought to be lost during the last war. It was good to know it back safely with its owner. He supposed it belonged to the bespectacled boy and felt a surge of glee fill his chest at the thought how his face would look like once he saw the amounts of gold in his family's old vault.

Griph handed the keys back to Mr. Blackstone and nodded towards Grook who smirked knowingly and led the small group consisting of Alex, Harry and Mr. and Mrs. Blackstone. Professor McGonagall had decided to wait in the hall in order to assist the Grangers should they need help with anything. She also wasn't very fond of those damn carts.

Alex and Harry were delighted once the cart started its rather fast and dangerous ride down to the vaults. They even passed a waterfall and many stone formations as well as glittering gems. It was a beautiful sight and Alex would bet that Hermione would be equally as enthralled with the cart ride next year as she and Harry were now.

They stopped at Harry's fault first. Vault number 687 belonged to the Potter family and had so for many years. Harry took his key from Mr. Blackstone and climbed out of the cart behind Grook. After one look Alex followed him, her friend was frightened and didn't know what he would find behind the door of his vault and if anything would remind him of his parents.

Grook took the key and opened the door for him. It magically just slid back into the stone wall and revealed a large chamber filled to the brim with gold. The gold was stored in huge wooden boxes and sorted according to its value. Alex quickly explained that the gold ones were Galleons, the silver ones Sickles and the bronze ones Knuts. Harry nodded still dumbfounded at the sheer fortune in front of him and then just took handful of Galleons and Sickles and put them in the leather pouch Mr. Blackstone had gifted him for this exact purpose the day before for his birthday. After his money was securely put away he took another look around the chamber but apart from a few smaller boxes with jewelry there was nothing important from his family here.

The vault Alex' parents possessed was a bit farther down; the number 826 was carved above into the stone and when her father handed Alex her own key she was nearly as nervous as Harry had been before. She had no idea how much money her parents had and what else might be stored behind the door. She was glad that Harry stood right next to her just as she had done for him a few stories up.

Grook opened the door again and Alex couldn't help but gasp at the sight. Her family had even more gold in their vault than the Potters had. Beside the gold there was jewelry, gems and other magical items that looked rather old and powerful. There even were some books stored in a small cupboard and Alex' fingers itched to touch them but she knew that wasn't what she was supposed and probably allowed to do. Instead she just took enough money for her supplies and the following school year with her and left the vault again, Harry still at her side, his eyes as big as saucers.

Her parents laughed when they saw their expressions and her mother gave them a warm smile.

"Our family is one of the oldest ones who managed to remain under the radar during dark times, so our name is not widely known. I can assure you however that we are direct descendants from Merlin himself and every witch and wizard from our family held great magical power."

"Did our family bring any dark wizards into the world?"

"In our line not, there was a wizard during the foundation of Hogwarts who sympathized with Salazar Slytherin, he was banned and died not much later at the hand of his great idol."

Harry gulped next to her, he didn't fare very well when the subject contained death and Alex desperately hoped that would get better before they went to Hogwarts this fall because the students there surely would all ask him about his parents and their death and what he still knew about that.

Therefore it was a slightly solemn group who walked back into the hall where Hermione stood waiting with her newly acquired wizarding money and vault key. Alex remembered to thank Grook for his excellent services and wished him a nice day before they left the bank all together.

She didn't see the bright grin on the goblin's face or how all the other goblins stopped dead in their tracks when they heard her referring to one of their own as _Sir_ and with a _Thank You_ no less. Alex' mind instead was occupied with all the brilliant shops they would get to see and she honestly didn't know which one she wanted to see first.

It was Professor McGonagall who finally laid out a plan of action. "I believe it to be the best choice to get your clothes fitted first, and then get your wand and after that I think we can split up and meet at the magical menagerie."

Everyone nodded and only when they had already entered Madam Malkin's did Alex remember that Hermione still didn't know that she was different and would get fitted for a boy's uniform rather than that of the girls. There was no chance to avoid this however as the shop owner already approached them with a bright smile on her lips. She just had to hope that Hermione wouldn't notice her uniform over all the other exciting things there were to see here.

The robes they had to wear at Hogwarts were rather simple so that no one would be able to show off their status. The only difference allowed were when it came to festive robes or quidditch robes. Alex also spied a few muggle based clothes that looked really funny. There were boxers with moving snitches on them for example or a hoodie which was enchanted so that the hood would never move once put up.

She was pulled away by her mother who snorted slightly when she saw the boxers her daughter clutched in her hands. She took them from her and sent her off with Harry and Hermione to get measured for their school robes in the other room. Alex had to climb onto a small pedestal next to Hermione and as soon as she stood an enchanted measuring tape began floating around her. When it came near her crotch Alex couldn't help but blush and hope the girl next to her didn't notice.

Hermione didn't but she got curious once she saw only one pair of skirts flying across the room to magically alter itself to the received measurements. Alex wasn't paying that much attention to what was happening, too concentrated on not blushing any more.

"Why won't you be getting a skirt Alex?"

Her heart nearly stopped and her head whipped around to the girl next to her so fast she got a bit dizzy for a moment. Then she began stuttering because she couldn't come up with a good enough lie to tell this exact moment. Harry on the other side of Hermione had heard what the question had been and before Alex could utter anything else he simply said: "She is a Halfling or Hermaphrodite. She can't wear skirts."

Alex turned beet red and stared at the ground waiting tensely for Hermione's reply. The other girl had to think for a moment what that meant and once she remembered where she read the term before her eyes grew big and she gasped. Alex next to her jumped and tensed even more, waiting for the biting and disgusted remark.

"I didn't know there were really people with this condition. When I read about it in one of the medical books in the library it said that next to no one has it anymore and even if they do then it is only that subtle that their outer appearance isn't different from that of a regular female. Never did it say that it could be fully developed."

Slowly Alex raised her head and met the questioning stare of the other girl. There only was curiosity and wonder in her eyes, no disgust or anger like Alex had feared there would be. She couldn't help but let out a teary laugh and quietly said: "It is a bit different in the magical world. There are a few of us but some old families look at us as freaks and unworthy."

"Well I don't and I don't understand how anyone could either. I hope you still want to be my friend even if I now know your secret."

"Of course I do. I'm actually very relieved that you know about that. It makes talking to you easier. I won't have to watch what I'll be saying around you anymore."

The three kids grinned at each other as if they now shared a great secret and that glued them together somehow. They didn't talk about Alex' condition anymore and simply waited for the shop owner to magically finish their clothes. It was a small package for every one of them with the normal robes, the winter robes and the cloak they had to have. The hats and gloves were also there as well as the boxers with the moving snitches for Alex which even got a small honest smile to creep onto the stern face of their Professor.

When they left Madam Malkin's again the street had filled noticeably with witches and wizards as well as a few teenagers who were obviously also getting their school supplies. Their small group headed for Ollivander's to get their wands and also to escape the growing crowd. The children as well as Mrs. Granger couldn't believe how many people were bustling about this early in the morning and according to Professor McGonagall it was only bound to get more packed in the afternoon.

With all seven of them in Ollivander's shop it was a bit packed and the old wizard who appeared seemingly out of nowhere from behind the shelves had to quickly hide his surprise at the assemblage of people in his shop.

"Oh new students I suppose? Who wants to go first?"

All three of them threw their hands into the air and then scowled at the others. Mr. Ollivander laughed and said with a small wink: "Well then, Ladies first."

He turned towards Hermione and motioned for her to step forward, and then he took out a similar measuring tape as Madam Malkin had used. He muttered silently to himself all the time and when he was satisfied with the results he disappeared between the huge shelves. It took a few minutes for him to reappear with a small stack of boxes in his arms. He deposited them upon his counter, took the first one, opened it and held it out for Hermione to take the wand lying within.

"11 inches, made of cherry with the hair of a unicorn as its core, slightly springy. Try it out."

Hermione took a deep breath and took the wand, she just held it for a moment not knowing exactly what to do, so Mr. Ollivander told her to swish it. She did just that and immediately one of the quills lying on the table caught fire.

"No, no that is not the right wand for you." Mr. Ollivander hastily took the wand back, diminished the fire and handed Hermione the next one.

"10 inches, made of holly with a dragon heart string as its core, unyielding."

Again Hermione took the wand in her hand and swished it through the air, quite gracefully Alex found. The wand emitted a loud bang and was also cast aside. The wand maker had a delightful grin on his face, it seemed that he very much enjoyed a challenge in finding the right wand.

The next box was chosen and presented. "10 ¾ inches, made of vine with a dragon heart string as its core, slightly springy."

Hermione swished the wand and a warm golden glow emitted all around her. It made her look like a mythical creature and Alex hoped that she wasn't staring and blushing as bad as she thought she was. Hermione had just found her wand and the smile on her face was nearly as brilliant as the light her wand had emitted. It was a truly beautiful sight to see.

Next one was Alex herself and she felt her nerves coming up when the old wizard began measuring her like he had Hermione. He took even longer than before searching for possible wands and came back with only four boxes. With a smile he took the first one and presented the wand to her.

"12 inches, made of oak with the hair of a unicorn as its core, springy. Go on, try it out."

Alex took the wand into her right hand and even before she did the swishing motion she knew it wasn't the right wand for her. True to her thought a vase exploded behind the desk and the wand was quickly taken out of her hands.

"Try this one then, 12 ½ inches, made of yew with a phoenix feather as its core, slightly springy."

Again Alex took the wand and made dark mist appear above the ground. Mr. Ollivander took the wand from her and handed her the next one. With a bit of anxiety she listened to what he had to say about this wand.

"13 inches, made of rosewood with kneazle whiskers as its core, swishy."

This time the wand didn't give her such a strong feeling of simply being wrong but as she swished it angry red sparks flew out of its tip and nearly burned her fingers. The wand was also cast aside and Mr. Ollivander presented her with the last wand he brought forward for her to try. A mild panic of not being fitted with any wand and therefore not being allowed to go to Hogwarts with her friends settled into her stomach and she had to reprimand herself to listen to what the old wizard was saying.

"Also 13 inches, made of cedar with kneazle whiskers as its core, surprisingly swishy."

She had only closed her hand around the wand when the golden light was emitted and a warm and safe feeling washed over her. She stared in wonder at the wand in her hand and couldn't help the goofy grin that spread across her face. Her own wand looked sturdy but beautiful just like her mother had always described her. There were intricate designs carved into the handle that reminded her of the Vikings and runes she had seen in one of her father's books.

Harry was the last of the three friends to be fitted for his wand and where Alex thought it had taken the wand maker long to find something suitable for her it took him even longer looking for Harry's perfect wand. When he finally emerged between the shelves he held only one box in his hands and the look in his eyes was conflicted between curiosity and sadness.

"I never thought I would come across someone suitable for this particular wand. 11 inches, made of holly with a phoenix feather as its core, nice and supple. Try it out boy."

Reluctantly her best friend grasped the wand and swished it through the air. The golden light surrounded him almost immediately and she could see his happiness fighting with the worry about what the old shop owner had cryptically rambled.

"I thought so. The Phoenix who gave me this feather gave only one other to me for use. The wand I made of it was fitted a long time ago to a boy who was destined to do great things. They turned out to be very evil but they were still great. The wand I'm talking about gave you the scar on your forehead and that means you are destined for greatness as well. I'm fairly certain you will act as the direct counterpart to the owner of your wand's twin."

Harry paled and for a moment he looked like he didn't want to take the wand but then determination set in and he nodded. "I promise I will achieve greatness for the good side with this wand."

Alex couldn't help but hug her best friend at that and squeezed tightly, letting him know that she believed in him and would always be there to help him not stray from his path. They both knew there had been rather dark moments in his life already.

After paying for their wands and thanking Mr. Ollivander for his great work the small group set out again, all desperately trying to find back to their good mood.

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 **Let me know what you thought of this one, I really appreciate your comments :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I hope this chapter isn't too long winded for you :) Enjoy!**

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It had been decided that Alex would accompany her father into the apothecary and after that to Potage's Cauldron Shop where they would get the cauldrons for everyone and then meet up again with the others at Florish and Blotts, the bookstore were Hermione would spent hours according to her mother and Harry first wanted to visit the Quidditch shop and then get the books for himself and Alex.

Entering the apothecary Alex had to admit that it didn't exactly smell very good but that was probably only due to too many different ingredients stored in one rather small space.

The elderly witch standing behind the counter eyed them warily but deflated slightly once her father began explaining what kind of work he was about to do and what he needed in order to do so. Alex was soon left to her own devices and looked around the shop. She started in the right corner directly next to the door and studied the ingredients stored there. They were all liquid and put in charmed vials which prevented them from vanishing or shattering. One of them had a vibrant shade of pink and when she read the small label beneath the row of vials her eyes grew wide and she had to try very hard not to snort out a loud laugh. The vials contained dragon pheromones, whatever one would need them for.

Next to the liquid ingredients came the already mixed up potions which promised to also be quite interesting. Alex read every label with interest and tried to think how difficult certain potions would be when brewing them herself.

The real interesting part came when she reached the dry ingredients for they were the mass normally used during potion studies and surely also at Hogwarts. She even spied a few darker items among harmless ones and was delighted to find small notifications next to the labels of such items. She supposed they had to be put there because some would cause severe damage when touched without gloves. Interestingly enough Pixie dust was one of such dark items as well as phoenix scales. Apparently under their magical feathers Phoenixes had scales which would burn right through the skin of a human and were used to create fertility potions of all things. Alex simply hoped that it didn't hurt the birds when they lost their scales and then moved on in her investigation. She had just about finished all the shelves in the main room when her father had finished his shopping and was telling her that they were leaving. The old witch behind the counter eyed her suspiciously, she obviously had noticed her interest in the special ingredients she had on offer. Alex simply smiled at the woman and followed her father outside to get the cauldrons and phials they would need for their potion lessons at Hogwarts.

In Potage's Cauldron Shop they even had cauldrons made entirely of gold which cost a small fortune but as her father explained they were needed for some of the most sensitive potions as to not disturb the magical processes happening between the ingredients which in the end created the wished for potion.

Potion making seemed even more of a beautiful art to Alex now that she had seen the various amount of ingredients and cauldrons as well as the beautiful scales and phials available. She just hoped that they would have a good teacher in potions at Hogwarts and not someone who knew nothing of his subject like her mother told her about the ghost who taught History of Magic.

After they bought everything they were meant to do her father steered her towards Florish and Blotts, the bookshop Hermione had been so excited about and even the stern Professor McGonagall had looked like she couldn't wait for that part of their shopping trip.

When they reached the rather small looking bookshop a new thought had struck Alex. She would try and find some more books about potion making and special ingredients which none of the other kids her age would know about.

Entering the store she was once again fascinated by what magic made possible. The bookstore was fairly large on the ground level and a wooden staircase led to another story where even more books awaited to be found and read. Alex bounced on her feet and looked to her father for permission to go off on her own. He had barely nodded and she was off towards one of the clerks who were sorting new books onto the shelves.

"Excuse me Sir, could you tell me where I find books about potions and necessary ingredients?"

"Ground floor, second to last row on the left."

The man hadn't even looked up and while she thought that to be awfully rude she still thanked him and rushed off towards the named aisle.

There was a tiny metal plate at eye level for an adult maybe were it simply said _Potions_ and so Alex stepped into the aisle and looked at the first couple of books on display. There were so many and she had no idea where to start. Some more basic ones would probably be good but if she found more specific ones that caught her eye it would be hard to decide which ones to take. She couldn't spend all her money on books and then have none left for other things she might need as well as food on the train or things like that.

After she had just pulled about six books randomly down from the shelves and still hadn't found anything really interesting or on her level of understanding she decided to look for different and promising looking spines among all the other books.

Soon enough she pulled out one book that had a deep blue leather binding and looked rather old. On the cover it simply said _Potions of mysteries and legends._ That sounded at least a bit more interesting than books on potions that would change ones appearance or potions which can only be brewed on the full moon.

She opened the book to its first page and overlooked the table of content. The book dealt with potions from the middle ages who were often mentioned in tales told to children and there was even a small part about potions said to be used by druids even further in the past. With a happy gleam in her eyes Alex kept the book tight in her hands and continued searching further for spines that caught her interest. There were all kinds of books present but when she came across a very small and worn looking one something spiked her interest and she pulled it down to look at. On the cover was a sketched cauldron and underneath stood in scrawly letters _Potions invented and enhanced by the Half Blood Prince._

She had never heard of such a title before and was sure it was a self-claimed one. Nonetheless the book promised to be interesting and the potion names that were given in the small table of contents also sounded promising to her ears. That book too was tucked away under her arm as she continued her stroll further down the aisle.

Alex was on her way back to the main aisle of the bookshop with a book called _Most used potion ingredients and where to find them_ as well as one with the title _The mysteries of being a potions master_ added to the other two books she had found. She hoped her father wouldn't object to any of her choices and that the books weren't too expensive as she wanted to look at some about the history of wizarding folk as well.

On her way down the main aisle towards the History section of the shop she found Harry and her parents looking quite bored and with all their required schoolbooks already purchased. Her best friend groaned when he spied the extra books she was carrying with her and claimed: "Hermione has at least twice the amount of books already and she still is trying to argue with her mother that she will only be doing light reading before the start of term. I think she might be a walking library by the time she is done in here."

Alex burst into laughter and showed her books to her father while she said: "Liking books is not a bad thing Harry and she doesn't have the previous knowledge that we do. It is only understandable that she wants to be best prepared. Now do you want to look at the History section with me?"

Harry seemed to debate that question for a moment, then he slowly shook his head. "I think I'm better off here waiting for you. Hermione said she'll be done in twenty minutes max so you better hurry."

Alex made a face at him and then rushed off to the very large section that stretched over at least four aisles as far as she could tell. Hopefully they would have some subsections that would lead her into the right direction because she hoped to find some more books about Druids and their way of using elemental magic. It would surely be fascinating to know more about where their powers today came from and how they were initially used.

She was lucky; when she reached the shelves there were the same small metal plates that divided the sections by topic pinned to the shelves themselves and announced the time they dealt with. Apparently she had walked in at the most recent history and therefore could walk quickly through the aisles until she reached the ancient times as they were called. There were only a few battered looking books stored there and with a sliver of disappointment she reached for the first book to decide whether she could use that one or not.

Sadly most ancient history books turned out to be folklore or children's tales which she didn't want nor need to read because she had plenty of those at home. It was a second before her father called her name that she reached for a rather large and heavy looking tome bound in black leather. The cover was imprinted with runes and in the middle was the caricature of a thunderstorm that even appeared to move when one didn't look directly at it.

She didn't have the time to check the table of contents for whether she had finally found what she had been looking for or not and simply clutched the book tight to her chest as she hurried back towards her parents and friends. Her father smiled at the large book and handed her the others she had left with him to take to the counter and pay for. Already standing there were Hermione with her mother and Professor McGonagall. The Professor had purchased two large tomes on new Transfiguration techniques and Hermione had books about almost anything remotely magical. She really had to feel quite out of place if she thought she had to look all that up to fit in. Alex spied one book however she might also find useful to read beforehand. The book was called _Hogwarts A History_ and probably held many of the secrets that would help them be one step ahead of their classmates.

"Hey Hermione, when you're finished with _Hogwarts A History_ would you lend it to me?"

The other girl looked at her in surprise and wonder, and nodded her head quickly. It seemed to be new that someone asked her to read one of the books she found interesting. With what Alex already knew about her new friend she was sure she had always been alone at her old school and had been laughed at for her various books. That's what would've happened to her if she didn't have Harry and thus Dudley and his peers harassing them. In those scenarios no one cared about a book.

Hermione's mother grumbled something about no more presents during the school year when she heard the cashier tell her the amount of money she had to pay for all the books her daughter had deemed necessary to read. Alex snickered lightly at that and then handed over her own books. The Professor eyed them curiously and raised an eyebrow in surprise when she could only find potions related books and one about history in her small pile. Alex hoped she wouldn't be offended that she already had such a specific interest in topics before the start of term. She knew that was pretty uncommon and she would have to work hard as to not be noticed as a Know-It-All by the other students.

After their fairly long stay at Florish and Blott's Harry insisted they look at all the animals at _The Magical Menagerie_ and _Eylope's Owl Emporium_. Alex knew that he always had a hand with animals when they found some in the park near the school or on walks through the forest with her parents and she hoped he would find the perfect familiar which would help him even more than Alex ever could while living with his relatives. She thought that even Hermione looked eager to look at the familiars. She had first heard about them when Alex' mother had asked her what she thought her familiar would be and since then had been engrossed with the idea of intelligent animals.

Their small group entered the Owl Emporium first and immediately was assaulted with shrill cries, soft hoots and staring eyes from all directions. There were huge owls, small owls, eagle owls and every feather color possible. Harry disappeared between the nearest cages and gushed about how beautiful all the birds were. He got quite the bit of attention from the owls but her best friend wandered further until she couldn't see him anymore and with a shrug of her shoulders Alex asked Hermione if she wanted to help her look for an owl instead of waiting with the adults in the front of the shop. The girl beamed at her and together they chose a different route than Harry had. Alex looked closely at each owl they passed and tried to find that feeling inside her heart her mother had told her would let her know she had found her familiar. It was supposed to feel like finding ones other half of the soul.

Alex had no idea how long she and Hermione wandered through the aisles full with all kind of owls. They had passed Harry on several occasions, the last time he had found his familiar in a beautiful snowy owl. It was in the right back corner were only a few cages were standing that Alex finally found her familiar. She initially had only skimmed over the cage because she had thought it to be empty but as she wanted to step top the next one a shrill cry and the blinking of crystal blue eyes had stopped her. There sitting in the cage was a fluffy and rather small owl with funny looking puffs on top of its ears. The feathers were of a black so deep she had been next to invisible while closing her eyes in the dark corner.

Alex cooed at the owl and took the cage down to carry to the front of the shop. Hermione laughed at the small and funny looking owl but seriously said: "She is perfect for you Alex. Just as special as you are and probably much better at sending letters in secret than Harry's owl will be."

Alex let out a loud laugh at that and her owl agreed with a series of barking cries that sounded very much like laughing. That owed her an adoring look from Alex and a bright grin from Hermione.

When the two girls and the smallish black owl reached the front of the shop the shopkeeper widened his eyes and murmured something about thinking he would never get rid of that harpy in the back of his shop. The Professor gave him a reprimanding look for that comment which made Alex wonder just how accurate her hearing truly was. Her parents simply smiled at her and the owl and told the shopkeeper to ring up the basic supplies for this kind of owl as well and then paid for all of it even though Alex tried to protest.

In the Magical Menagerie which was right next door Hermione found a funny as well as grim looking cat that was supposed to be half kneazle. He definitely looked the part but Hermione seemed to love the battered guy and Alex was probably the only one else who could get near him without being scratched or bitten. It seemed that the core of her wand indeed had some influence on her aura or whatever it was that could be sensed around magical beings of all kind.

They ended their shopping trip around midday at Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlor with huge sundaes and milk-shakes, the kids talking about what they looked forward to at Hogwarts and that they would exchange regular letters with Hermione so that she wouldn't feel left out what with her living farther away than the two best friends.

Their ways parted inside the Leaking Cauldron where Professor McGonagall took Hermione and her mother as well as all their purchases back to the Granger's home via floo and Harry, Alex and her parents climbed back into the car they had parked around the corner.

"Do you really think Hermione doesn't mind about me being different than her? I mean it could be just studious curiosity couldn't it?" Alex whispered to Harry, careful that her parents didn't overhear their conversation.

"No I don't think so; she seemed to be quite serious when she said that she didn't mind and that she wanted to be your friend nonetheless. Why would she play the little friendless bookworm with her mother present if it wasn't real?"

Alex pondered this and finally nodded at her best friend, she would have to just go with it this time and hope that Harry as well as her sometimes fluttering heart when around the other girl were correct about their new friend. The school year couldn't start soon enough for her.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: I had nothing better to do at work so you get rewarded with another chapter so soon. I'll also take the time and answer some questions you seem to have.**

 _1\. There will be no real pairing in this story. As I'm planning to continue it throughout later years at Hogwarts you can look Forward to some good Pairings later._

 _2\. Alex is only interested in girls, so there is no chance of her and Harry getting together._

 _3\. Yes she has a crush on Hermione, I'm only putting small hints in this Story however._

 _4\. Alex won't completely replace Ron at Harry's side but I don't particularly like Ron so I will highlight a few of his worse characteristics._

 **Besides that I hope you enjoy the progress my story is making :) Let me know what you like/dislike and think in general.**

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It was the night before the start of her first school year at Hogwarts and Alex felt herself being unable to sleep. She had tossed around in her bed for about three hours when she finally gave up and grabbed her flashlight as well as the heavy tome on her night stand. Hermione had send her _Hogwarts A History_ about a week ago and she immediately had started reading it but she still had to finish the last two chapters before she could give it back to her friend. The book was very interesting indeed and had told her about a few possible hidden rooms and passages that she vowed to herself to find and explore.

The book also contained the complete history of Hogwarts founders and gave further insight into the four houses no conversation with her parents could get her. Even Harry had been interested in that part because he had been getting jitters about which house he would be sorted into and what would happen if he didn't fit into any one of them.

The hours sped past her while she read on in the book under her covers as to not alert her parents or the house elves to the fact that she was still awake. Once she finished the book she smiled in happy anticipation and tried again to sleep. This time when her head lay comfortably on her pillow she was out like a light and had to be shaken awake the next morning by her mother to get up on time. She eyed the large tome next to her bed with suspicious eyes but said nothing and instead shooed Alex into the bathroom. There Alex took a long hot shower and then pulled on her new boxers she got that day at Madam Malkin's for good luck as well as the rest of her casual clothes. She would've to change on the train but that would be better than to walk through the muggle part of King's Cross Station in a robe and with a pointed hat.

When she finally managed to go downstairs with her owl that she had named Ella - after an elf deity their house elf Sunny had told her about - in tow Harry was already there with all his stuff and a nervous expression on his face. Her father looked a bit strained which told her the Dursley's probably tried again to keep Harry locked away and not allow him to perform magic. She waited for the day when her father would loose his cool and hex Mr. Dursley. It would probably be illegal but also quite amusing for everyone else.

"Am I late? You didn't call again so I figured I had enough time for a shower." Alex tried to get her parents attention on another subject and it worked quite spectacularly as her mother took another look at the clock and gave a yelp of surprise. Her father took action the same second, magically banning their entire luggage into the car and ushered everyone outside after grabbing the train tickets which were still lying on the cupboard next to the coat rack.

Alex and Harry were ushered into the back of the car and then her father sped out of their driveway and down the street towards London. It appeared that they were in fact a little late and none of them wanted for Harry and Alex to miss their train and the sorting and probably everything else as well.

They made it to King's Cross in record time and even had enough time to spare to get a small snack at one of the bakeries. Then her father heaved their trunks onto two trolleys and handed them their train tickets.

"Now, the entrance to the gate is between the barriers of platform nine and ten. It has been magically sealed so you will be able to simply walk through it while Muggles won't be. In our family it is tradition that all first years find their own way onto the train and that means also making it onto the platform on their own. So good luck you two with the sorting and give Hermione our greetings."

Alex and Harry got a last hug and then they were left standing there alone and felt a little lost. Alex was the first one to finally snap out of her stupor and signaled Harry to follow her. She got them to the muggle platforms nine and ten and then stood there a bit self-conscious. She didn't want to make a fool out of herself and run straight at a solid brick wall beside the point that there were two barriers to choose from.

She was still contemplating both barriers with a critical eye when Harry suddenly elbowed her in the ribs and pointed to a group of red headed people talking to themselves. They consisted of four boys of different ages and a small girl as well as the mother of them. She didn't understand why Harry had felt the need to point them out to her but then she spied the small barn owl in a cage on top of one of the boy's trunks and when Harry and Alex got nearer they could clearly hear the woman complain about the station being full of Muggles.

They followed the family to the second barrier where only a few Muggles were still standing on the platform and watched the seemingly oldest boy look around shortly and then walk straight through the barrier as if it wasn't even there. They had found the right place and might even be able to get to know someone else besides Hermione.

The woman spotted them before they could utter a word themselves.

"First time to Hogwarts, Dears? Ronald is attending his first year too, just wait for a bit and then we will help you get safely on the train."

She was the epitome of a mother hen as Alex thought of them but she had a warm twinkle in her eyes and a brilliant smile that made her accept her other rather smothering qualities.

Harry introduced them in a sudden surge of confidence and then had to fend of the excited and curious questions about his parents and what it was like to be famous. Especially the small girl had turned red as a tomato and not uttered another word after his revelations. Alex sighed and thought that this nice enough family might not be good friend material after all. That was however only until their mother barked sternly at them to leave the boy alone and to never utter a single question about his parents. Then the kids suddenly turned normal again and muttered apologies. The boy Ronald, who would be in their year, even asked if it would be okay to sit with them on the train. She could tell that Harry was excited at the prospect of having another boy as a friend, just like Alex had been regarding Hermione.

When they crossed the barrier in a slight jog at the recommendation of the warm woman who had introduced herself as Molly Weasley they openly gaped at the magnificent sight of the red Hogwarts Express.

Alex had only seconds to admire the train however because then someone with bushy brown hair threw themselves into her arms and squeezed tightly. She had to giggle once she realized it was Hermione who had engulfed her in such an enthusiastic hug and then hugged her female friend back. Her heart was doing that weird flutter again that she couldn't explain and therefore she decided to ignore it continually. It probably was nothing and if it got worse she would ask the school nurse about it.

Harry laughed at the picture they created next to them and only then did Hermione let go and gave him a brief hug in greeting too. She opened her mouth about to tell them where her parents and her luggage was when the rest of the Weasley's bustled onto the platform and Mrs. Weasley ordered all the children around her to the emptier looking end of the train, including Alex, Harry and Hermione. Hermione shot Alex a rather confused look at such a notion but only got a snicker as an answer and therefore decided to just go along; her parents were in that direction as well so she wouldn't have a problem getting her luggage into the same compartment as her friends'.

The Grangers spotted the odd throng of red-heads and the three friends and brought Hermione's luggage to the same compartment. The Weasley twins helped the younger ones with their heavy luggage and after giving their mother each a kiss disappeared out of sight. The oldest of the brothers endured a bit more of his mother's fussing and finally managed to escape with the excuse of having to find the other Prefects, whatever that was.

Ginny, the small girl who was yet too young to attend Hogwarts stayed at her mother's side and kept staring at Harry, which made him a bit queasy so Alex decided that they should get to their compartment before someone else would've thrown their luggage out and claimed it as their own. She knew that was pretty unlikely because there was no one else back here but Hermione and Harry immediately agreed and after Hermione said goodbye to her parents and Harry grabbed Ron by the arm they all boarded the train and settled down in their compartment.

"Thanks mate, my mother takes it a bit hard now that only Ginny is left at home. It will probably be hell the first few weeks for my sister. Mom won't let her out of her sight and it will be even worse next year when Ginny will attend Hogwarts as well as the rest of us."

The concept of having that much siblings to share a home was foreign to everyone else though so Ron soon shut up and shrugged with a nervous smile. Then he turned to Harry and asked: "Do you really have that scar on your forehead? They always write about it in the books."

At this Harry grinned and lifted his shaggy hair so that the scar shaped like a lightning bolt was visible. Hermione who hadn't yet seen the scar herself gasped. "Does it still hurt? It looks kind of fresh."

"No it doesn't and I've had it for over ten years so I wouldn't say it was recent."

That was all that was being said about Harry and how he became famous for the rest of the train ride. None of the other students bothered them, only Percy once opened their compartment door with a small brown haired and slightly plump boy at his side who had lost his toad. Besides that they bought a small amount of all kind of wizarding sweets at the trolley that came through and tested all the funny looking ones of _Berty Botts All Flavored Beans_ as well as compared the cards they got from the chocolate frogs. Ron apparently had almost every card at home in an album where he collected them. Harry found the thought fascinating of collecting moving pictures of famous witches and wizards through the ages so Alex and Hermione gave him their cards as well.

Sooner than they would've thought they had to change into their uniform and then they reached Hogsmeade Station from where they would be taken towards Hogwarts. A giant man with a wild mane of dark brown hair and a long beard held up a lantern and bellowed across the students: "Firs' years to me. Firs' years! Any more firs' years? Follow me."

He led them down a small path until they reached the shore of a dark lake where an array of boats laid waiting for them.

"No more 'n four to a boat." The big man bellowed once again which made Alex question if he could talk at a normal volume at all, probably not what with him being so big.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Alex all climbed into a boat together and when everyone had found a place the giant man climbed into a boat all to himself and with the wave of his wide hand the boats began moving across the lake.

"When we round tha' corner you'll all get yeh firs' sight of Hogwarts."

Alex could see everyone craning their necks, trying to spy the school first. Then the boats made a swift turn and gasps could be heard all around them. Hogwarts truly was a magnificent sight in the red and orange light of the sunset. The castle was standing majestically on top of a hill with small towers standing out at odd places and Gothic arches giving it an elegant edge.

The boats they were sitting in delivered them to a small underground harbor of sorts which had been build inside the water cave of the cliff beneath the castle. The entrance had been hidden by a green plant-curtain that would make it near impossible to spy the cave from afar. One had to know exactly where it was.

Once every student had safely left the boat the big man led them up some winding stairs and into the entrance hall of Hogwarts. The hall was big enough to fit a whole house and Alex had to admit she was very impressed by the marble floor; the wide staircase leading to the higher floors to their left and an equally impressive but slightly smaller staircase leading down towards what she presumed were the dungeons as well as the tall double doors obviously leading into the Great Hall judging by the loud chatter coming from behind them. Once they were all assembled in the Entrance Hall Professor McGonagall appeared in front of Hagrid.

"The Firs' years Professor."

"Thank you Hagrid, I will be taking over now."

Her voice sounded sterner than when they had met for their shopping in Diagon Alley and Alex was sure that there was a clear line between the Professor and Minerva McGonagall. Surely here at Hogwarts they would only get to see the Professor and she would have to be careful to approach her accordingly.

When Hagrid disappeared into the Great Hall the Professor looked them over and smiled in welcome.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, you all will be sorted shortly but before you are let me tell you some of the more important things. There are four houses here at Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Your house will become your home and family for the amount of time you will be staying here. You can earn your House points by doing well in your classes but you can also loose points if you break any rules. The Sorting Ceremony is very important so try to improve your looks to the best of your abilities. I'll be back shortly."

Professor McGonagall directed them into a small off the hall room and vanished again in a swish of robes.

"What do you think we'll have to do for the Sorting?" a small boy with black hair and an Irish accent asked somewhere behind Alex and her little group of friends.

"My brothers told me we would have to fight a troll or something like that." The boy Ron replied next to Harry.

Alex scoffed but before she could say something Hermione next to her lectured: "The Sorting Hat will sort us into the Houses, it's all in Hogwarts A History. Have none of you read the book?"

Ron looked at her funny and no one else said anything so obviously they hadn't read the book. Hermione blushed and looked down, clearly ashamed about her outburst and somehow Alex felt angry about that. She gently grasped the hand of her friend and gave it a light squeeze.

"I read the book."

Hermione smiled shyly at her but before she could say anything or anything else could happen between the First Years the door opened and Professor McGonagall led them towards the doors of the Great Hall.

"Now arrange yourselves in pairs and follow me quietly."

Alex shot Harry a quick look and when he simply nodded with an understanding grin she pulled Hermione back into line next to her. The girl stared at her wide eyed; having thought the two best friends would stick together in this and then smiled brightly. It was a much more beautiful look than the sad look she had before.

When they entered the Great Hall in pairs of two Alex couldn't help but gasp at the magnificent sight. She had known about the enchanted ceiling and the pompous cutlery but seeing it all for the first time was still breathtaking. Hermione next to her let her eyes moves so quickly from one interesting thing to the next that Alex feared she might get light headed and dizzy but thankfully that didn't happen. Ron seemed to be not quite as affected but Harry also had a quiet look of wonder on his face as he looked around him. The older students looked at them as well, some were smiling and others had more of a neutral look on their faces. Most of the neutral faces belonged to the table wearing green and silver, Slytherin as Alex knew.

When they reached the front of the hall they had to stand in a row facing the other students with their backs towards the teachers at the high table. Professor McGonagall placed a small stool in front of them and then a battered looking old hat on top of it. First nothing happened and Alex could feel the anticipation growing, than a rip opened in the hat and a creaky voice sounded: "Welcome to Hogwarts. Soon enough you will know where you belong but before I decide your fate it is time for the Welcome Song." And the hat started singing about the houses and their traits.

It was a funny song and when the hat finished the whole hall erupted in cheering and applause. Once the noise subsided Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and unrolled some parchment.

"When I call your name you will step forward, sit on the stool and put on the hat. The hat than will sort you and you will join your new house at their table…Abbot, Hannah."

A blonde girl with pigtails scrambled forward, her cheeks a deep shade of red as she sat on the stool and put on the hat. It was so large that it immediately slid down to the tip of her nose. Silence engulfed the hall and for about half a minute nothing happened, then the hat bellowed out: "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table second to the left cheered and the small girl hurried towards the empty space at the end of it to sit down. Relief was clear on her face and Alex couldn't wait to be sorted herself. It wasn't said how exactly the hat was deciding on the houses but if it could speak it surely had the ability to talk to the students without the others noticing their conversation.

There weren't that many A's in their year and soon she heard McGonagall call: "Blackstone, Alexandria." And stumbled forward herself, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

She put on the hat and was engulfed in darkness of fabric, and then she heard a silent voice speaking in her head.

"It has been a long time since I had one of your kinds here. A lot of courage as was with all the others, but oh…so much thirst for knowledge as well. Now where to put you?" the hat mused in her head.

Alex thought about all the things she liked to do, the fact that she desperately wanted to stay with her two friends and didn't want to face resentment and maybe even hatred towards her anatomy in the dorm rooms.

"Ah I understand, well I guess I know the perfect house for you where your friends will surely be able to follow you to."

And then out loud it bellowed: "GRYFFINDOR!"

Great relief flooded through her as she put the hat back on the stool and took a seat at the cheering table to the far left next to the Hufflepuff table.

When she was seated she could see Harry grinning at her and Hermione smiling. Now they just had to get into Gryffindor as well but as far as she knew them they wouldn't have a problem with being brave and courageous.

There were a lot of people she didn't know sorted first and besides herself the boy who hadn't known about the sorting hat named Seamus Finnigan, a girl names Lavender Brown and another girl named Amara Derwent had also gotten sorted into Gryffindor.

First of her friends was Hermione whose hands were visibly shaking when she put on the hat. The time seemed to move even slower than during her own sorting but then finally the hat shouted out: "GRYFFINDOR!" and a beaming Hermione plopped down on the long bench next to Alex. There was still a fairly large group of students to be sorted and Alex wondered how many students would be in their class and with how many others she would have to share a dorm room. Up until now they were four girls and her mother had told her that was normally the amount of students allowed into a dorm. So either there were no more girls about to be sorted or there was more than one single dorm room for all of them.

The row of students continued shrinking and now that one of her friends had been securely sorted into the same house as her Alex at least tried to pay attention to the others sorting and the names of her future schoolmates. That was probably the only reason why she heard a boy named Neville Longbottom being sorted into Gryffindor as well as the names starting with a P prior to that of Potter and looked on as a girl names Pansy Parkinson sat on the stool. The hat took fairly long before sorting her into Gryffindor as well. There was uproar at the Slytherin table and the girl looked rather pale and scared as she hurried towards her new house and sat down on Alex' other side. Quietly so that the others wouldn't hear their conversation she asked: "Why are they so upset that you got sorted into Gryffindor?"

"My whole family has always been in Slytherin and so I was expected to follow in their footsteps but I don't agree with what they believe in and I don't want to be locked into a creepy dungeon with other girls who are shallow and believe in all their families' pureblood ideology. Now I'll probably get disowned by my parents."

Alex made wide eyes. Of course she knew about pureblood ideology but her parents had never been a supporter of them and raised her to believe in equality and goodness. It was indeed a very brave thing for her to let the hat know she wanted desperately to be sorted anywhere else but into Slytherin.

During her conversation with Pansy she had missed another Indian looking girl being sorted into Gryffindor as well and then it finally was Harry's turn. The whispering of the hall at the mention of his name quieted down when he quickly shoved the hat on top of his head and sat down. When a whole minute had passed and nothing had happened Alex started to worry and bit her lower lip in anticipation. Then the hat finally seemed to have made a decision as it bellowed: "GRYFFINDOR!" and Harry nearly ran towards the table where his friends already sat. His cheering was definitely the loudest and also quite embarrassing for her best friend as his cheeks reddened visibly.

The rest of the Sorting nearly rushed past Alex who was beginning to feel her hunger come back now that her nerves were fading. She only noticed the students sorted into Gryffindor. There were another two girls: Haley Sinclair, another red head and Morgan Waterbrook who was at least a head taller than all the other girls as well as three more boys: Zack Smith and Dean Thomas who were both African as well as Ron Weasley who seemed to count himself as Harry's best friend the way he behaved and Alex felt a slight dislike for the boy creep into her heart.

All in all that meant they were fourteen students in Gryffindor's first year and if it was similar in the other three houses that meant they were about sixty new students. Alex had never before been to a school with that many attendants and was curious as to how good they each knew one another with there being that many of them. Before she could think more on that matter however the headmaster Albus Dumbledore rose to his feet and silenced the hall quite impressively.

"Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank You."

Alex stared at the man for a while longer, wondering if he was a bit crazy when Hermione jabbed her elbow into her ribs and pointed to the table in front of them. Various sorts and in copious amounts of food had appeared and it simply smelled divine. Maybe those funny words had been some sort of spell or something of the like she thought before she began piling food onto her plate.

Pansy gaped at the amount and asked incredulously: "How can you eat that much?"

"What? It's not that much, only my first plate. Besides I'm terribly hungry after the long train ride and the small bagel I had for breakfast."

The girl still looked taken aback but didn't say anything else as she simply watched in wonder as Alex ate everything on her plate and then took another helping. Hermione laughed at the face the other girl made. "You have to get used to it, she always eats more than half the boys."

Alex scoffed offended but couldn't say anything due to her mouth being full with food. That made Pansy laugh only harder. The other girls and boys around them hadn't listened to their small conversation but had been speaking about where they came from. This had been started by the boy Seamus who was a Half-Blood and joked about how his mother hadn't told his father about her being a witch till after the wedding and that his father had been more than just surprised at this.

The others weren't half as impressed as he clearly hoped they would be. They were all distracted however when the Hogwarts ghosts made an appearance through the wall and right into the mass of students. Then the ghosts split up and drifted to the tables of their prior houses. A pompous looking man was the Gryffindor ghost and introduced himself as Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington but one of the older students told them he was simply called Nearly Headless Nick. Of course Seamus then had to ask how he could only be nearly headless which led to the ghost grasping his left ear and pulling his head swiftly to the side until it was only dangling on one small bit of silvery skin. Someone obviously had wanted to behead him but failed quite spectacularly.

The rest of the feast was spent with easy conversation about likes, dislikes, possible classes and dorm arrangements.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: I decided to use Hermione's POV a bit more often so tell me if you like it or not...I'm also running on what the film shows and what my own mind makes up in regards to classes so I hope you like them. But don't worry there won't be too much about them, the interesting part is about to begin in the foreseeable future. :)**

* * *

After the feast and a cryptic warning by the headmaster about the Forbidden Forest and the third floor corridor all the first years were led to their common rooms and dorms by the Prefects of their House. For the Gryffindors that was Percy Weasley, the oldest Weasley currently attending Hogwarts. He held his nose a bit high Alex thought as they followed him and listened to his lecturing voice tell them what they would find on each corridor and to watch the staircases because they liked to move on their own and sometimes made it near impossible getting somewhere.

When they finally reached the highest tower it seemed of the entire castle their journey ended in front of the portrait of a fat woman.

"This is the Fat Lady, behind her portrait lays our common room. It is password protected, this terms password is Caput Draconis." At that the woman in the portrait nodded and swung to the side, revealing a large hole in the wall leading into a wide circular cozy room with a crackling fireplace on one side and various amounts of sofas, armchairs and small tables strewn about the room. It had a homey feeling to it and the view from the large windows was spectacular as well.

"If the password is changed it will be announced a day prior on this board. You also find extra curriculum activities, the momentary amount of house points and the stand of Quidditch games there. Your dorms are up the stairs, boys to the left and girls to the right. There will be a small plate with your names on it next to the door. Your luggage as well as your familiars has already been brought up so I suggest you unpack and get yourself acquainted before term starts tomorrow."

With that he left in a flourish that probably should be impressive but looked like a poor impression of someone else. Before Alex went upstairs to unpack she turned towards Harry and asked him if he was okay, he had been awfully quiet during most of the feast and on their way up.

"I'm fine I think, just something weird happened during the feast. I was looking over the teachers to guess who teaches what when my scar suddenly hurt really badly. It wasn't like a normal headache either. The funny thing was no one was looking at me but I could've sworn I felt burning eyes on me from a particular direction. There was a pale looking Professor with this absurd purple turban on and even if it sounds absolutely crazy I think the pain was caused by the turban or something underneath it."

"Did you ask who he was?"

"Yeah, that's Professor Quirrel. He teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts so it sounds even more absurd."

Alex scrunched her eyebrows together. Harry had never been wrong with his empathy and so she was willing to believe him but he also had a point that it was a bit crazy to think a turban was a possible threat.

"I have no idea what could be the cause of this but if it happens again with the turban near you we should try and find out as much as we can about this Professor Quirrel."

Harry nodded; thankful that she didn't call him crazy and didn't believe him like Ron had done earlier on their way up to the tower.

Alex smiled at her friend and said good night before she went up the stairs to find her dorm room. She tried not to worry too much about Harry but the fact that as soon as he entered the magical world something weird had happened around him wasn't really helping her cause.

Then she reached the first landing and looked at the two doors that led to different rooms. She looked at the first small plate and read the names of Lavender, Parvati, Morgan and Haley. They would fit best together that much had been obvious during dinner and so she simply went inside the other room without first looking at the plate next to the door.

Hermione smiled up at her where she was crouched next to her suitcase unpacking her things. Pansy was on the bed opposite from Hermione and was staring blankly at something that very much looked like a picture so Alex decided not to bother her tonight. The third girl apart herself was Amara who seemed oddly hesitant to unpack her things fully. Alex wondered briefly if she had plush animals in there somewhere and was embarrassed or if it was something else.

But then she just went to the four poster bed assigned to her and opened her own trunk. Her things looked a bit chaotic compared to Hermione's neatly folded ones but she decided not to mind and after she had stacked all her books onto the small shelf next to her bed she put all her other school supplies as well as a leather bag underneath them. Her mother had charmed the bag with a feather light charm so that she would be able to put as many books in there as she needed or more like wanted.

Next were her clothes that she would have to put into the small dresser at the foot of her bed. She contemplated shortly how to go about that and then simply began piling her things on top so that she would know how much she had of each thing and where she would best put it. She didn't even think about her boxers and the boy's pants she had as a part of her uniform when suddenly Amara was standing next to her and asked in a very quiet voice: "Are you…well…are you a Halfling?"

Alex froze and then stared at the other girl. She didn't lash out however when she noticed how she was fidgeting with her hands and would not meet her eyes.

"Yes I am, why do you ask?"

"I just wanted to make sure. The hat told me I wouldn't be alone but he wouldn't say who the same like me was from our house. Apparently there are four of us in this year and obviously us two in Gryffindor."

Alex at first couldn't believe her ears but then she squealed very girlishly and hugged the other girl close to her. Never in her life would she have thought that she would meet someone like herself here at Hogwarts. Her mother had always told her how rare this specific set of DNA and magic was in the world. Sometimes Alex had even thought she might be the only one in the world and now there was another Halfling in her class and in her dorm too at that.

Their moment was broken when someone next to them cleared their throat and Pansy asked with a raised eyebrow: "Why are you hugging like that?"

Hermione was right next to her, staring questioningly at Alex and said girl couldn't do anything else than gush out: "She's just like me!"

Hermione made wide eyes but smiled brightly at both girls and Pansy looked desperately lost. Before she could say something though, Amara explained: "I noticed her clothes and asked her if she was a Halfling because the Sorting Hat told me that I wasn't the only one in our house this year."

"So you're both Halflings?"

Alex and Amara nodded and waited for Pansy's reaction. Not everyone would accept them as readily as Hermione had, especially not someone coming from an old Pureblood family. They waited for about half a minute, and then Pansy began crying. Alex looked first to Hermione and then to Amara but they seemed to be equally as shocked as she was at the sight of Pansy crying. Finally she pushed her own fears aside, stepped forward and awkwardly hugged the taller girl. Pansy clung to her and cried on her shoulder for what felt like an eternity. When she finally got herself under control Alex managed to sit her down on her bed and handed her a tissue she had found in her back pocket.

"I was always made believe that I was sick for liking girls more than boys but now I learn that you probably are just like me. Sure you have some part of a guy but you still consider yourself to be girls, otherwise you wouldn't be here. I'm sorry for crying but knowing that it would be okay to be myself here with you just broke some kind of dam in me."

"Oh that's okay. No one here will judge you for being gay." came the reply from Alex.

"I think we're the perfect dorm. We fit perfectly together, it's almost as if the headmaster or the Castle itself knew all that about us before each of us even considered it." was Amara's reply.

Hermione simply nodded and smiled at Pansy. It was too good to be true and Alex hoped Harry had equally amazing dorm mates. For the boys there were probably only three to a room and she was sure Ron would be one of the boys in Harry's dorm.

* * *

 **Hermione POV**

It was pretty late at night but Hermione couldn't sleep. Amara's last reply to Pansy's breakdown ghosted through her mind and she couldn't stop thinking about it. Two of the girls were Halflings, one was a lesbian and so she couldn't help but wonder how she herself fit into this all. She knew for sure that she wasn't like Alex or Amara but she couldn't help and wonder if she might be like Pansy and that was why she had been put into the dorm with the other three girls.

The thought wasn't revolting but confused her a great deal. She never thought about whom she might like before. She was only eleven years old after all and love or relationships never occurred to her.

Only when the sun began creeping up the horizon her thoughts finally came to a standstill when she realized that it didn't matter to her if she had only been put into this dorm because she might be gay herself. She had seven years to figure it all out and it wouldn't do her any good if she started eying every girl who crossed her way just to see if she might like her or not. So finally and with a small smile gracing her lips she was able to fall asleep, her mind being able to come to rest a bit before their first day of school would start in the magical world.

* * *

 **Alex POV**

It was to the early rays of sunshine that Alex awoke in her new home in Gryffindor Tower. The other girls were still asleep and she couldn't help but laugh quietly when she saw the little problem Amara would have to deal with once she was awake. She knew that every boy or Halfling for that matter had that problem when they reached a certain age but she always found it quite embarrassing. Especially when her mother had explained to her what it was and how she would get rid of it. This morning however wasn't as bad as some she had in the past half year.

So she had plenty of time to just lay in her bed, stare out the window across the beautiful grounds Hogwarts possessed and think about what the first day of school would bring for her and her friends. Then she thought about Harry and if he had been able to sleep in peace after that encounter with Professor Quirells' turban the night before. He sometimes tended to have very vivid nightmares about stuff like that.

Alex' peaceful morning ended once Amara woke up and let out a loud shriek when she discovered her arisen problem. That as a chain reaction woke up Pansy and Hermione and both girls hurried out of their beds to make sure their new friend was alright. Alex saw the horrified look on Amara's face and quickly intervened before either of the other two could make it to her bed.

"Don't worry she is fine, just a weird dream. She'll be better once she had time to calm down and that will be best accomplished if we give her some space I believe."

Pansy nodded and grumbled under her breath about how she would've been able to sleep one more hour still and then disappeared into the bathroom connected to their dorm. Hermione wasn't as easily convinced but once she saw Alex pleading look she also grabbed her things and went to take a shower.

"Is that the first time that has happened for you?"

Alex had turned around to Amara and the way the other girl was clutching a pillow to her lap and the panicked look in her eyes made her think she never before had to deal with this peculiar morning problem.

Amara nodded and choked out: "What is it? It hurts when I press down on it but it also feels good. Is this a curse?"

Alex wanted to laugh but knowing how the other girl probably was feeling she simply shook her head and explained: "No, it's a pretty normal occurrence for all boys and Halflings once we reached the first stages of puberty. At least that's how my mother explained it to me. It's a bodily reaction to absolute relaxation and sometimes pleasure. Later it will be how we are able to make love to someone."

When Amara's eyes grew even wider at that statement Alex hurried to add: "But that's not what this is about now. This is just your body waking up from the completely peaceful state of sleep and growing up. It will go away after some time if you don't think about it or if you touch yourself it will also go away. I only do that however if it is really bad and when I'm alone."

Amara nodded once again and finally took away the pillow to look down at her lap. It now looked nearly back to normal and Alex could clearly see the relief in her eyes at the prospect that she wouldn't have to touch herself and be further embarrassed.

"Thank you Alex. My parents never told me about that, I'm sure they forgot or thought it still might be some time before I started growing up."

Alex smiled and nodded, then she grabbed her own clothes for the day and went into the bathroom, leaving Amara to think for herself a moment longer before she had to start the day.

In the bathroom Hermione looked at her with a raised eyebrow and with a low chuckle Alex replied: "Just some puberty problem that was new to her. Don't worry about it."

Hermione raised her eyebrow even further but didn't say anything apart from gasping out loud when Alex simply shed her clothes and stepped into one of the shower stalls. It appeared that Hermione never before encountered male anatomy that close to her before. Alex scolded herself for shocking her friend like that, she simply didn't think about it anymore after the night before where she made sure all her new friends and dorm mates knew about her and were okay with it.

When all the girls were ready and went downstairs into the common room to wait for the Prefects who would take them back to the Great Hall and once again point out classrooms and the like for them, none of them mentioned what happened last night or this morning.

In the common room they met most of the boys who were already there. Harry was sitting in one of the couches and looked like he didn't get that much sleep the night before. Worry evident on her face Alex sat down beside him and asked quietly if he was okay. Her best friend meekly nodded his head.

"I'm fine I just couldn't stop thinking about Professor Quirell and what might be off about him. Ron's loud snoring also didn't really help."

"Did he say anything else about you being crazy? Because if he did I'm going to show him what crazy means."

Harry laughed quietly and after he shot a quick look over her shoulder where Hermione was standing watching them carefully, he shook his head. "He didn't say anything else. I think he regrets his outburst from the night before. I hope he apologizes, it would be nice having a guy-friend like you have Hermione now."

Alex too had to laugh at that and decided that her friend was fine apart from being a bit tired maybe. She stood again and joined her dorm mates who were trying to guess what classes they would have on their first day and if they would be any good at casting magic.

Some of the other Gryffindor First Years eyed Pansy warily but when Alex glared at them or Hermione raised on of her eyebrows challengingly they quickly averted their eyes and didn't say anything. They all knew that there were bound to be some snide remarks by both Slytherin and Gryffindor but Alex would do what she could to make Pansy's very first day at least bearable.

It was seconds after the last of the other girls had arrived in the common room, that Percy Weasley appeared next to them and told them to follow him.

"Professor McGonagall will hand you each your schedules and say a few words about school rules, so I won't bother you with that. Normally your first lesson is held by your Head of House who will guide you to the right classroom so that none of you can get lost."

After those few introductory words he once again began rambling about what each corridor they passed was used for and that they always should keep their eyes on the moving staircases. It was next to impossible imagining him being related to Ron who rolled his eyes every chance he got when his older brother let loose one of the more know-it-all responses he got up his sleeve.

The Great Hall was already bustling with students and their chatter made for a nice background noise that created a welcoming and warm feeling within Alex' stomach.

When they walked through the hall to their seats at the end of Gryffindor table she could feel more than just one pair of eyes on her and her friends. Some were staring at Harry, most of those looks came from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor and some were staring at Pansy, those looks were coming from Slytherin and Gryffindor alike. When they sat down they could see the Slytherin First Years mumbling to themselves and pointing at Pansy. The girl had blushed scarlet red at all the attention and sat slumped in her seat as if she wished to simply disappear through a hole in the ground or something like that.

"Well at least now I'm not the only one from our house who is stared at." Harry piped up from across the table where he sat next to Ron Weasley and the boy Neville Longbottom. Pansy chuckled quietly but still didn't look comfortable in her skin.

Before anyone else could say something or throw something at her Professor McGonagall made her way towards them with a small stack of paper in her hands.

"Good morning, I hope you all had a good night's sleep because you will need all your energy on your first day. I'm going to hand you your timetables now and after you all had a look at them say something what is expected of you now that you are students of my house."

Everyone nodded and Alex could see the other Head of Houses do the same with their First Years out of the corner of her eye.

When Alex was handed her timetable she began studying it intently. They had four classes each day, all with duration of two hours and an hour break for lunch. Today they would start with Transfiguration with McGonagall just as Percy had suspected. After that was Charms with Flitwick, then they would have lunch and after that Herbology with Sprout and last Care of Magical Creatures with Kettleburn. Both of their afternoon classes would be held outside the main castle on the grounds and Alex couldn't help but feel excited at the prospect to see more of them already on her first day.

She also knew Professor McGonagall would be right, their first day would be packed with work and surely they would be half asleep once dinner would come around. She secretly asked herself how she would find time to study and do her homework, surely she wouldn't have the time to do it all on the weekends and she wanted at least one day to herself for fun reading and exploring. She heard Harry and a lot of the other boys and girls groan at the sight of their classes.

"In your first lessons you will be instructed which chapters of your assigned workbooks will be thematised when so that you will know what to read ahead of classes. No one will expect you to answer any questions that are of higher level than the previously assigned chapters in your books. You also won't be expected to know how to perfectly handle your wand or how to pronounce the spells. That's what you will be learning in the beginning and I hope you all play close attention because you will need that basic knowledge later for more advanced spells."

Their Head of House looked at them sternly over the rim of her glasses and then continued her little speech: "You are able to earn your House points by answering questions correctly and doing exceptionally well in class. You will lose points if you are unable to answer questions repeatedly, perform badly and don't pay attention. Every teacher gives out points based on different standards. You will have to find out what they are on your own. I also don't want to find out any of you received detention in your first week, is that clear?"

The look she sent them was possibly terrifying and Alex saw everyone nod their heads meekly at the looming threat at failing their Head of House. Professor McGonagall nodded satisfied, flashed them a brief but warm smile and told them to enjoy their breakfast before she would lead them to the Transfiguration classroom.

"Do you think I will really loose points if I don't know the answer to some question?" Harry asked rather terrified. He now wished he would've looked more closely at his schoolbooks like Alex had done before they came here. Maybe then he wouldn't embarrass his house by being stupid.

* * *

After breakfast the First Years had hurried after Professor McGonagall through the hallways until they had finally reached their Transfiguration classroom. Alex had memorized the way as best she could and vowed to make a map of the castle so that she wouldn't get lost on too many occasions. The hallways were a maze with about a thousand shortcuts and the staircases seemed to always lead somewhere else than the moment before. She was bound to be late to some of her first classes if she didn't explore the castle on weekends and learned every single nook by heart.

Professor McGonagall told them to each take a seat and then to open their books to the first chapter. They were told to read in silence and when they finished their Professor asked each and every one of them a couple of questions to make sure they understood what the chapter was about, then ordinary matches appeared on their desks. Professor McGonagall wrote the incantation on the board and made them repeat after her so that they all knew how to pronounce the words correctly. Then came the wand movement and sooner than Alex would've thought they were told to perform the first piece of magic on their own. She scrunched her nose in concentration, fixed the match with her eyes and repeated the spell as well as the wand movement to her best abilities. Nothing happened but she felt a small warm spark incite near her heart. Mr. Ollivander had told them it would feel different when they first tried to do magic with a wand. They had to view the wand as a part of their soul so that their magic would flow through their heart and into the wand.

Alex tried again, thinking of the wand as a tendril of her heart outside her body and to her great satisfaction the warm sensation spread from her heart through her arm to her fingertips and into the wand. The match turned silver in front of her but nothing else happened so with a sigh she concentrated and tried again. This time the match thinned out until it resembled the shape of a needle but the pointy end and the loop were still missing. When she lifted her wand once again she felt how she got a bit dizzy for a moment and waited till it passed before she tried again. This time her match turned into a needle completely. Alex sighed deeply and slumped back into her seat exhausted from the unfamiliar use of her magic.

Hermione who sat to her left had nearly mastered the spell as well; her match was already pointy and silver and was just missing the loop and the right thickness. Pansy who sat to her other side and made up the end of their shared table groaned in frustration and when Alex looked at her match she saw that it was still the same and hadn't changed at all. She gently nudged the girl with her knee and whispered: "You have to think of your wand as an extension of your heart or soul for magic to work. Otherwise you'd be attempting to do wandless magic, which is far too advanced for us."

Pansy looked at her a bit skeptical, clearly she had never heard of that before but when she saw Alex' completed work she nodded and with a look of determination she repeated the spell. Instantly her match turned into a perfected needle that was only slightly bigger than average. Pansy let out a surprised tinkle of laughter and Alex gaped in wonder. The girl was quite talented if she did that in one try even if she needed some encouragement first.

When she looked around the room to see how Harry was doing she noticed that most of the class was having problems with the spell. The boy Seamus was waving his wand about in quite the funny gesture, but she feared that the effect it would have on his spellwork might be a bit catastrophic. As if her thought had been some sort of trigger the boy's match exploded in a spectacular manner, burned his eyebrows and blackened his face. Harry and Dean who had the misfortune of standing right beside him also got some soot on their robes and faces.

For a moment everyone was frozen but then Professor McGonagall rushed over to the boy and began scolding him and cleaning up his mess.

"Now I hope everyone saw what can happen if you don't listen to my instructions. The wrong pronunciation does nothing with the simpler spells, they just won't work but the wrong wand movement can lead to destructive releases of magic. You can very easily hurt someone by being careless. I deeply hope that you learned your lesson Mr. Finnigan and from now on will be more careful with following instructions."

Seamus looked frightened and was only able to nod his head. It was void to say that their Professor's mood had drastically sunken and so everyone exhaled a breath of relief when she spied the three perfect needles in front of Hermione, Alex and Pansy.

"Oh very well done my dears. Five points to Gryffindor each. The rest of you may continue their tasks. You three will now try and reverse the spell. The incantation is the same only the thought behind it is a different one."

Hermione nodded as if she had known that already and Alex simply thought that it was logical not to work with various spells if one simply wanted to undo what had previously been altered. Pansy didn't show any emotion at all and simply raised her wand again in concentration and muttered the same spell. Nothing happened and relieved that the girl wasn't some hidden genius Alex turned to her own needle, imagined the match it had been before in her head and performed the same spell again. She felt the warm flow of magic through her veins and nearly squealed in delight when the needle immediately turned back into the boring match it had been.

Pansy huffed and when she was sure Professor McGonagall wasn't looking she poked her tongue out at Alex and with a small giggle after she saw the other girls incredulous look she transfigured the needle back into a match with apparently only a small strain on her magic.

Hermione had finished first and was shaking her head at the other two girls, laughing silently to herself over their antics. It was nice having friends who were as clever and intelligent as her and could still be fun to be around.

Harry was still struggling with transfiguring the match into the needle although Alex could see that his match at least was already of silver color, different from Ron who had done no change at all to his match and didn't seem to be trying anymore. He looked on while Harry tried his best and made some comments from time to time. Alex felt anger bubbling up inside her chest, that boy was lazy and probably not helping Harry at all. She nearly felt sorry for his mother and younger sister who had seemed very nice when they met at Kings Cross Station only two days ago.

* * *

 **Hermione POV**

When Hermione entered the Great Hall for lunch again she felt as if she was walking on a big fluffy cloud. Transfiguration and Charms had been fantastic and interesting. The best part of her day however had been Alex who always sat next to her, was talking to her on their ways between classes and down to eat something, admired her quick affinity towards magical spells and flashed her a goofy grin every time she managed to do just as well if not better in their classes. Pansy who mostly stuck close to them as well as Amara whenever she could were also quite nice and spoke with her about classes and magic but somehow it wasn't the same as it was with Alex.

She even noticed that she did more together with Hermione than with her best friend Harry. The bespectacled boy looked to try and gain the friendship with the youngest Weasley boy. Maybe they both had decided to look for other friends their own gender before spending all their time together and therefore earning weird glances from the rest of the student population.

Ron didn't talk much with neither Alex nor Hermione and had absolutely horrid table manners so that Hermione was glad not to sit directly opposite or next to him. That honor had befallen Neville who was a shy and clumsy boy who up until lunch seemed to not be very good at magic.

When the First Years were on their way outside to the Green Houses where they would be taught Herbology Hermione once again found herself walking between Alex and Pansy, Amara next to the other girl and if she didn't mistake the warm feeling inside her heart she was feeling more content than she ever had before in her life.

Inside of Greenhouse three a plump woman with a warm smile waited for them in front of a low table where lots of strange looking plants sat in pots. Hermione had no idea what kind of plant that was; she had never seen anything like them before and couldn't wait for the lesson to start.

"Gather around the table please everyone. Normally I would start this lesson like many of my colleagues no doubt did, with reading the first chapter of your workbook so that you know what awaits you the first weeks of term. However today we will do something different. The plants you see in front of you are Mandrakes; they have reached their puberty stage this weekend before term and now have to be repotted in order to continue growing. You will be helping me with the task, you will be working in pairs and at all times have to wear your gloves and the earmuffs you'll find under the tables. A Mandrake's scream is deadly; thankfully the ones you will be handling are only able to make you faint. Still, I don't want to send anyone to the Medical Wing, is that clear?"

Hermione quickly nodded and grabbed the earmuffs to put on, eager to do some actual work before even reading a book about it. She wanted to see if she could still do as good as she did every time she read about the subject first.

Alex grabbed the muffs next to her and pulled on her gloves, she looked possibly ridiculous with the bright pink muffs atop her head and Hermione couldn't help but snicker at her picture before she looked around if all the others were ready as well and they could start the work. The empty pots were stacked under the table as well as huge sacks of special soil next to them.

Professor Sprout showed them how to handle the Mandrakes and everyone made a face at how ugly and loud the plants were. It was truly intriguing to come upon plants that _lived_ in a different sense of the word one normally connected to them.

Alex grinned at her and then simply grabbed one of the plants, pulled and held in inside her hands before Hermione could properly blink over the show of strength. She scrambled for an empty pot and while Alex held the plant down inside it she began filling it up with soil once again and then pouring some water over it in order to quiet it down like their Professor had shown them.

They worked efficiently together, the only one who seemed to be struggling with the plants was Ron who was continuously bitten by them and then flailed them around some to get rid of them. Harry had tears in his eyes from laughing and when he couldn't take it anymore told Ron to switch places with him. The redhead turned the shade of his hair and seemed to be properly embarrassed about his antics.

Hermione and Alex were nearly done with the Mandrakes at their spot at the long table when suddenly Zack let out a girlish squeal and jumped aside when Neville who he had been working with slumped to the ground. It seemed like the boy lost consciousness due to not putting his muffs on right. Professor Sprout let out a few curse words none of her students would have expected from her and hurried over to the boy on the ground. He commanded them to finish with their plants and to check the earmuffs of their partners before taking on the next plant.

Hermione looked Alex over once again but only noticed a smudge of soil right under her left cheekbone. The sight made her laugh once again and when Alex raised an eyebrow in question she took off one of her gloves and wiped away the smudge on her face. Alex blushed lightly at that and Hermione began scolding herself. She knew her friend liked girls and didn't want to give her any thoughts. She could only hope that Alex understood how the gesture had been meant and stayed her friend.

The class finished whilst Professor Sprout was still away with Neville, so they awkwardly shuffled their feet and waited for their teacher to come back or for it to be time to head down towards their next class. Care of Magical Creatures was said to be held in front of the Forbidden Forest but Hermione hadn't seen anything special in that direction and silently wondered what that class would be like.

* * *

 **Alex POV**

She nearly gasped out loud when Hermione had touched her face and apparently swiped away some soil. Her hand had been incredibly soft and the touch tender. It was different then when her mother would touch her but Alex knew Hermione had thought nothing of it so there should be no reason for her to feel this way.

The rest of Herbology blurred past her and she only managed to snap herself out of those strange thoughts when they were on their way towards the Forbidden Forest for their last class of the day. Harry slipped into the small space between her and Hermione and swung his arms around both of them. With a big grin he asked how the lessons had been for us so far and if one of us would help him master his spells.

Hermione beamed with joy and assured him that it would be no problem for her to help him with the right movements of the wand and incantations. Harry smiled at her in thanks and silently, so that only the two girls next to him would be able to hear him he said: "I don't know if Ron is a good choice as a friend. He is just so lazy and when I try to talk to him about something besides his family, Quidditch or chess he just tunes me out. But he also gave me all of his chocolate frog cards he had more than once and he offered to teach me how to play wizarding chess. Do you think it would be worth trying to be his friend Alex?"

Alex thought hard about this, she knew just because she couldn't really stand the boy it didn't mean he was a bad person. So when she finally sorted through her thoughts she whispered back: "You should continue trying and give him some nudges in other directions too. He has to know that being lazy won't get him through school here and just because half of his family was here before him also doesn't mean he isn't able to add some more achievements to those they already got. He might not be so bad once he gets over his attitude."

Harry grinned in thanks and squeezed her tightly once more before letting go and sauntering back to Ron and Seamus who were talking about his exploding methods in Transfiguration and Charms.

Care of Magical Creatures wasn't all that eventful when considering the rest of their day. Nothing dangerous happened; they simply sat on tree logs and stumps around a paddock reading the first chapter of their book and then the strange and oddly deformed Professor told them about which injury he got from which animal. It was slightly disgusting in most cases and when he told them they would start with the subspecies of magical creatures in their next class now that he had warned them of the more dangerous ones they all sighed in relief.

All in all the day had been exciting and challenging in their abilities and knowledge so it was no wonder all the First Years nearly fell asleep over their dinner that day. Alex was glad to see that even the proud Slytherins were under the same predicament and then only concentrated on eating and following Hermione back upstairs to Gryffindor Tower and into their dormitory where she fell fully clothed across her bed and as soon as her head hit the pillow she was out like a light. The last thing she remembered being Hermione telling her a good night.

* * *

 **AN: Please leave a short comment. I'd really appreciate that!**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Don't worry we will come closer to the action surrounding the Philosopher's Stone :)**

* * *

The week continued to be exhausting for the First Years and they were all thankful that they didn't get any homework assigned over the first two weeks. It gave them time enough to settle in and get used to the new rhythm of their life.

Ron had bettered himself slightly after Harry had a private talk to him and even if Alex still didn't exactly like the boy she was okay with him being her best friends mate and sitting with them during meals as well. Hermione often would scrunch up her nose at his eating habits but she didn't say anything in fear of coming on as too bossy and loosing Harry his first friend beside Alex.

Another change in their normal day came with Friday after lunch when they had double Potions with the Slytherins together. All their other classes had been only Gryffindors apart from one Charms class they had with the Ravenclaws. It was also the first Potions class for them, their timetable would change slightly after Christmas when they had all the basics down and would be allowed to learn more than just spells.

The Potions classroom was situated in the dungeons and when they made their way down there after lunch she heard more than one Gryffindor mutter about how snaked always liked dark and damp places. Alex didn't voice her thoughts about finding the dungeon hallways fascinating. She simply waited next to Hermione and Harry for their teacher to arrive.

Ron had told them how Snape was evil and that he took points from other houses for no reasons at all. He was also convinced that the Professor had been a follower of Lord Voldemort and therefore shouldn't even be allowed to teach at Hogwarts.

When the door to the classroom finally opened and all the students filtered in Alex saw the clear division between Houses. It hadn't been like that with the Ravenclaws and she wouldn't have minded sitting in a row next to a tall and rather sturdy looking girl who seemed to be avoided by her fellow Slytherins. When she tried to point the empty row out to her friends though they all looked at her funny and wandered off to somewhere on the other side of the classroom. They were too many students however to leave some of the chairs empty so after quickly grabbing Hermione's hand she plopped down on the seat next to the Slytherin girl. The girl looked up in surprise and Alex could've sworn she saw a sliver of hope and joy in her eyes before a sneer took over her features and she purposefully turned her head the other way.

Hermione sighed and whispered: "Why exactly are we sitting here?"

"This is a perfectly fine spot to sit in and all the others were filled. Besides I think it's rather stupid to hate all the Slytherins if I don't even know any of them."

At that she saw the girl next to her shift slightly back and tilt her head curiously. She appeared to be listening intently to what Alex and Hermione were talking about. Maybe there also were some Slytherins who didn't want to uphold the hatred between Houses.

Alex didn't have time however to dwell on that last thought as the doors to the dungeon slammed open and Professor Snape walked inside, his robes swishing quite impressively behind him. He looked stern and had that typical Slytherin sneer on his face but he didn't exactly look evil to her. When the Professor reached the front of the classroom he eyed them all suspiciously and then drawled out: "There will be no stupid wand waving here, you are here to learn the mysteries and secrets of potions. Here you will learn how to capture glory, brew and identify poisons as well as their antidotes and even cork death. That is if you aren't just a group of Dunderheads like all the rest of the students."

Alex felt a giddy feeling bubble up inside her chest and couldn't wait to brew her first real potion. She also hoped that Professor Snape wasn't prone to answering peculiar questions she had about some of the things she read in the books she got at Florish and Blotts during her pre-school shopping trip.

Before their lesson started the Professor called their names to see if everyone was present and probably also to learn their names. When he reached Harry's name he sneered and exclaimed: "Harry Potter…Ah yes, our new celebrity. Well, you won't be receiving any special treatment from me boy. You'll have to earn your points like every other student in this class."

She could see Harry gulp but thankfully he didn't say anything and made the Professor detest him even more. She could however see Ron muttering something very quietly to Harry and doubted it had been anything nice about their teacher.

After Professor Snape had called the last name he told them to open their book at page 9 and to look over the potion, it was a simple mood enhancer. He then proceeded to explain how each step in the book had to be done and that it required a natural knack for the art of potions to receive excellent results.

Alex had hastily scribbled everything their Professor said next to the regular steps in her book, ignored Hermione's quiet lecture about destroying books and then set to work. She readied all the ingredients in the correct order, read over the instructions twice more and then began measuring dried snake skin on her brass scales. The skin then went into the mortar and after adding the three required puffs of leprechaun dust she began pounding it to a mixed powder.

Alex was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn't even notice the Slytherin girl next to her copying her exact movements and making quick notes in a notebook she had hid inside her Potions book. Hermione next to her was also working quietly but seemed to struggle with the flame under her cauldron a bit.

Alex was in the middle of slicing ginger roots into as thin slices as possible when Seamus once again manages to make something explode. The contents of his cauldron spilled all over poor Neville who immediately began laughing uncontrollably and had trouble breathing. Professor Snape swooshed over to them and after a disgusted look he cleaned the mess up with one swift wand movement and told Seamus to get the hysteric boy to the Medical Wing. He also took five points from Gryffindor for their exceptional stupidity as he put it.

Alex nearly missed the right time when to add the sliced ginger root but to her great surprise just before it was time the Slytherin girl next to her coughed loudly into her elbow and got her attention back to the task at hand. Alex nodded her thanks at the girl but didn't say anything so that they wouldn't attract the attention from the rest of Slytherin.

After the last ingredient had been added to her simmering potion Alex continued stirring and let her magic flow from her heart through her fingertips into the stirring rod like she normally would with her wand. The effect was truly fascinating. She literally felt the magic swirling and unfurling inside the cauldron. Her hand moved on its own accord when she sped her stirring up a bit, going against the clear instructions in their book. Then she stopped stirring and turned the flame down until it was barely noticeable any more.

She wrote a quick note next to the instruction in the book, stating her own opinion and then continued stirring in languid movements until the potion turned a vibrant orange and began smelling like some sort of bubble gum.

When the first bubble appeared on the surface Alex extinguished the flame altogether and filled two phials with her finished potion before letting the rest cool down in the cauldron.

Hermione's potion had only reached the color of a slightly dark yellow and smelled of apples which had her grumbling under her breath, trying to decipher what she did wrong. Alex couldn't help but chuckle at that. Then she turned her head to the Slytherin girl on her other side and was astonished to see her potion being slightly darker than that of Hermione was, although it still smelled like apples.

The girl must have sensed her look because for a brief moment their eyes met and there was a shy grin on the other girl's face before she looked away again.

Once the lesson leaned towards the end Professor Snape began striding between the rows and made sharp comments about the mostly poor attempts at the potion. Harry became a particular snide remark because somehow his potion had turned green. Alex wondered what her best friend had done to receive such a result and vowed to ask him later.

A Slytherin boy named Draco Malfoy apparently had done well and earned his house ten points. Most of the other students, no matter from which house they were, only received raised eyebrows and biting comments. Alex found some of them rather delightful and had to hide a snicker behind her hand when Professor Snape looked into the cauldron belonging to one of the huge boys next to Draco Malfoy and immediately retracted his head as if he feared the thing would explode any minute. He asked the boy whose name was Vincent Crabbe, if he had any brain mass left or if all the candy he must be eating to gain such a figure had destroyed the last bit of it. Obviously he had done far worse than Harry and most of the other Gryffindors.

When the Professor finally reached the last row where Hermione, Alex and the still unknown Slytherin girl were sitting he smiled slightly to himself when he saw the first result in Hermione's cauldron and awarded five points towards Gryffindor although he looked as if it pained him to do so. The fact that he still did it to remain a sliver of equality in his class convinced Alex that he wasn't as bad as Ron had made him sound during lunch.

The Professor stared a long time into her own cauldron so that she began fidgeting and broke into a light sweat. What if she had done something wrong even though it had felt completely right to her? How would she know if their teacher wasn't going to say anything to her?

True to her fears he said nothing and simply moved on to the girl on her other side. She nearly missed her name when Professor Snape awarded her ten points for her very good potion. The girl who wasn't as opposed to Gryffindor as her fellow housemates was Millicent Bulstrode. Alex thought she had heard that last name somewhere before, her parents probably worked somewhere with her father or something of the like.

When Snape dismissed the class after telling them to bring forward their samples with their name on them so that he could grade them she didn't know what to do exactly. It felt odd being the only one who hadn't received a remark for her potion. When it was her turn to hand in the phials with her potion the Professor briefly looked up and stated: "You will stay behind after the others Miss Blackstone."

Alex could do nothing more than nod and pack her things slowly. Hermione quietly let her know that she would be waiting outside for her so that they could make their way towards the library where they wanted to look for interesting books together.

"Tell me girl, did you receive lessons prior to Hogwarts. If that is the case than you should have told your Head of House accordingly and be placed in a higher class. I won't tolerate you cheating your way through my class to gain higher marks than the others."

"I swear I didn't receive any previous lessons Sir. I simply like potions, it's my favorite subject."

Again Snape eyed her suspiciously, and then he slowly nodded and after a moment of hesitation stated: "If you have any questions about the subject you may find me in my office whenever you feel the need to. Now I normally wouldn't do that for a student from another House but it has been quite some time since I've seen such talent in a young mind."

Alex couldn't help but beam a brilliant smile at her Professor and nod her head swiftly.

"Thank you Sir!"

She was a bit embarrassed how high her voice sounded, but then she simply smiled again and left the dungeon quickly to find Hermione and tell her about what the supposed evil Professor just told her. Hermione received similar treatment by their own Head of House Professor McGonagall for her talent in Transfiguration. Alex was sure her friend would be happy for her to have an equal talent in a different class.

When Alex rounded the corner towards the Entrance Hall she was more than a bit surprised by what she saw. There stood Hermione waiting for her just as she had promised and right next to her was Millicent Bulstrode, the Slytherin girl who sat next to them in Potions. Hermione looked downright tiny compared to her but Alex thought she would make a great protector for the delicate girl.

Alex waved to get their attention and raised a questioning eyebrow at her friend. Hermione blushed and stuttered for a moment before finally saying: "Millicent asked me if she could study with us."

Alex laughed and nodded towards the taller girl. "Won't your house mates bully you for hanging out with two Gryffindors?"

"Probably but it's not like that would be a big difference to how it is now. You saw that no one from my house wanted to sit next to me during class. It's like that in every other class as well. Only because my parents strayed from the path or something stupid like that. Draco said I had better been sorted into Gryffindor instead of Pansy but I don't think I'm all that brave."

"You've at least got to have some bravery, you're talking and studying with someone from Gryffindor and already know what treatment you will receive for that from your House."

Hermione looked between them with her head tilted in confusion. She still didn't know all that much about pure bloods and their values and Alex didn't really want to tell her about them. It would just make her friend uncomfortable.

* * *

 **Harry POV**

Harry saw Alex and Hermione together with the Slytherin girl whom they sat next to during Potions and contemplated going over. He wanted to talk to Alex about Professor Quirrel and how he had felt that terrible pain in his head again when he had been walking behind the Professor in some corridor. It was clear to him that the Professor himself had very little to do with the pain and that it could really only be his turban or something he was hiding in or under it.

When the three girls moved towards the library he decided to not destroy the happy atmosphere and wait till later that evening when he would get Alex alone in their common room.

He wandered off outside the castle and down to the Black Lake where he could see some students throwing stones into the water. A little way away from everyone stood an old willow that would be perfect in shielding him from the rest of the world if only for a little moment. He wanted to think for himself without Ron around who always tried to convince him of the evil around them here at Hogwarts or tried to get him to talk about Quidditch when Harry had told him a thousand times that he didn't know anything about the sport and had never played before himself.

He missed Alex terribly but also didn't want to spoil her happiness with her new friends. They had always been the same in that compartment, both not able to make friends easily due to their differences from the other children around them. He knew that he didn't have to be ashamed any more for his magic and relatives here at Hogwarts but all the boys in his year in Gryffindor didn't seem to make that great of friends. There was Ron with all his flaws and jealousy when it came to Harry being famous for something he didn't even remember, then there was Neville who was nice enough but way too shy and clumsy to take part in any sort of activity Harry found interesting. The other three boys Zack, Seamus and Dean mostly kept to themselves and were much the same as Ron when it came to the jealousy part. He had hoped that maybe he would find someone from the other Houses, but the boys in Ravenclaw were worse than Alex and Hermione combined when it came to books and studying and the Slytherins obviously didn't want anything to do with him. The Hufflepuffs he hadn't yet encountered but they looked like a nice bunch, maybe he would find a friend there.

Harry was brought out of his musings when he saw something rippling the surface of the lake. He stared intently at the spot and then he could make out a long tendril that seemed to belong to some kind of animal. He remembered Alex telling him about a Giant Squid who resided in the lake but at that moment he had thought that to be a joke.

Entranced in the sea creature he was quite startled when a loud booming voice sounded from behind him: "He a'ways knows when I come aroun'. Thinks I have some'ing for him, he does."

It was Hagrid, the giant groundskeeper who had guided them across the Black Lake on their first day who was standing behind Harry, looking out over the water in front of them.

"Do you know what it looks like?"

"O'course I do. He's about as big as the Entra'ce Hall of the Castle an' his skin is deep grey. His eyes are brown an' his tentacl's 'ave lots of suckers on 'em. He's a truly magnificent creature, he is."

Harry wasn't so sure about a squid being magnificent but his size alone would probably make him quite impressive. He simply hoped he never would fall into the lake and get caught in one of his tendrils. He didn't know what such creatures ate, what would tell him it wouldn't try to eat him when he had the chance to?

"Ye' better run along now 'arry, dinner is abou' te start and you wouldn't want yer friends worrying would ya?"

Harry quickly shook his head and sprinted up the narrow path towards the tall double doors that would lead him directly inside and into the Great Hall. His worries were nearly forgotten and he only remembered to ask Alex about Quirrel when he entered the Hall and felt a sharp pain between his eyes as soon as he let his gaze wander over the teachers.

* * *

 **Alex POV**

She noticed Harry walking into the Great Hall alone at dinner and briefly wondered if he and Ron got into an argument or something of the sorts. She felt bad for leaving him alone nearly all week and only talking to him during meals and that one time when he told her about Quirrel and the pain he had felt. While she watched her best friend walk over to their table she saw him flinch shortly when his eyes wandered over to the teachers. Professor Quirrel still had to be giving him some trouble and she decided to ask him about it later that evening.

During dinner she found herself more than once looking up at the high table and watching Professor Quirrel talking to Professor Snape. A small plan began forming inside her head. The Potions teacher had given her permission to come to him if she had questions. True he had only been talking about Potions but maybe he would also listen to her if she told him about the strange things she noticed about the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher. Therefore however she had to come up with more than just suspicions based on Harry's scar hurting. Snape would never believe her otherwise and worse might even retreat his generous offer from earlier.

Hermione shot her a questioning look, sensing that something was troubling her. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad if she asked Hermione to come with her when she went to talk to Harry. Surely she had some more ideas on the matter even though she would first reprimand them for thinking bad about a teacher that much Alex knew for sure about her female friend.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: I re-edited this chapter because as some of you brought to my attention in your lovely reviews I let some small detail slip my mind in the original one which I now corrected. I hope you find the small changes satisfactory. :)**

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As the weeks wore on and the First Years settled in solid friendships began to form between Alex and Hermione, as well as Harry and Ron and surprisingly also between Alex, Hermione and Millicent whom they only ever saw in Potions and during their self-assigned study sessions in the library. Pansy and Amara were also friends of the two girls Alex and Hermione but didn't indulge much in all the studying and conspiring against Quirrel. Therefore it was mostly their small group of four who could be seen walking through the castle together. Ron had gotten over his jealousy and after letting Hermione help him out with his spells he noticed how well he was doing in class and that it was actually fun performing magic. He was nowhere near becoming a constant partner in their studying but he could be convinced to do his homework on time and to try out some spells outside of class.

It was the day of Halloween something rather drastic in regards to Professor Quirrel happened. The students were sitting in the Great Hall during dinner and enjoyed all the special food and the big floating pumpkins that were alight with candles, when suddenly the doors banged open and the Professor came sprinting inside. He nearly collapsed at the foot of the high table and gasped out: "Troll…T…troll in the dungeons!"

Then he fainted and chaos broke out all around them. Alex wasn't really worried about the troll; they weren't that intelligent and fast. She was more intrigued with the fact that the man who apparently defeated numerous mountain trolls on his travels was running away scared from one single one now. Something wasn't adding up and while all the students around her began shoving towards the exit she looked around in search for another Professor.

Professor Snape as well as Professor McGonagall were standing slightly aside all the chaos and were overlooking the hectic exit of all the students.

"Professor! Professor Snape!" Alex shouted over the heads of her fellow housemates and tried to garner the attention of the only Professor she thought would be able to help them in their quest.

Snape had heard her shout and mentioned her off to the side where only a few older students still remained. Alex struggled a bit to reach him but once she did she rushed everything out in one breath: "Quirrel is planning something Sir! Why would he run away from a troll? He defeated many of them before and there is something simply wrong about him, something evil. I don't know what it is yet but it is under his turban. Why else would he wear that horrid thing?"

Professor Snape looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she couldn't help but add: "You've got to believe me Sir! Please do something about it."

Before her Potions Professor could say something her Head of House joined them and worriedly stated: "I can't spot Professor Quirrel anywhere. Let's hope the students didn't trample him to death and that he managed to escape through a side door."

Snape shot her a quick look and then rushed out of a side door only teachers were allowed to use as fast as his billowing robes would let him. Professor McGonagall stared after him in wonderment and then seemed to register the fact that one of her youngest students was still standing here in the Hall while a troll was roaming around the castle.

She spied another girl that stood awkwardly near the doors of the Great Hall and called out to her: "Miss Bulstrode, would you please make sure Miss Blackstone is on her way to her common room?"

Surprised at the name Alex turned around and grinned briefly at Millicent before she made her way towards her and saw Professor McGonagall leave in order to search for the troll with the other teachers.

Millicent gave a shy grin in return and motioned for Alex to show her the way towards Gryffindor tower. Confused Alex raised an eyebrow at her friend.

"I heard some loud banging going up the stairs. I won't let you go up there alone when the troll obviously no longer is down in the dungeons."

"Thank you Millie, let's just hope we don't come across it anywhere. I have no idea how to defeat a troll."

Millicent nodded and quietly they began ascending the stairs. When they reached the second floor the stairs decided to play a trick on them and wouldn't let them simply keep on walking up so they had to cross two hallways in order to reach the second staircase. They were just passing the girls lavatory where Moaning Mirtle normally haunted every poor soul who decided to use the toilets there, when they heard a girlish shriek that sounded very much like Hermione. Alex had no idea why their friend would hide in this particular bathroom and also why she would do so in the first place but she knew that such a shriek meant she was in trouble. It didn't matter why at that moment.

Millicent also had frozen mid step and after a quick look they nodded and opened the bathroom door slowly in order to overview the situation before they barged inside. What presented them as a sight removed all cautious thoughts however. There was Hermione under one of the sinks, tears running down her cheeks and a terrified look in her eyes. The troll was smashing its club into the bathroom stalls and was slowly coming closer to their frozen friend.

It was surprisingly Millicent who moved first although she always insisted she didn't have that much of a Gryffindor in her. She shouted something at the troll and threw a simple stinging hex at it. The hex didn't have any effect on it but the loud noise attracted its attention and slowly the troll began turning around. It smelled terrible and looked quite ugly. All Alex wanted to do was run away in the opposite direction but she couldn't leave her friend here all alone and scared.

"Hermione, get up! We've got to get out as long as it's still confused." Alex screamed at her friend.

Hermione was so scared though that she couldn't move and only whimpered and shook her head. Millicent dove forward, under the club and towards Hermione while Alex remained standing in the door and had to find something to keep the trolls attention away from the scared girl. She picked up one of the rubble pieces strewn around the room and threw it at its head when the troll once again turned towards Hermione and Millicent.

A loud roar echoed off the walls and the club came swinging towards her head. Quicker than she would've thought herself capable of she dove to the side and avoided collision. Millicent had simply picked up Hermione and was carrying her towards the door so Alex moved further into the room to get the troll to turn slightly away from the other girls. Her plan worked but this time she wasn't fast enough to duck the club and felt it struck her ribs and throw her across the room. The second collision with the wall was even more painful than the first one and she couldn't help the groan that escaped her.

Hermione screamed when she saw Alex fly across the room and Millicent had a fear stricken face. Alex managed to get up again and began stumbling closer to her friends. She nearly reached them when the troll's club came swinging towards her again. This time Hermione remembered that she was indeed a witch and had magic at her disposal. The first spell rebounded off the thick skin of the creature but the second wasn't aimed at the troll itself but levitated the club he had in his hand. It took the creature a moment to notice that his hand was empty and then it simply looked up dumbly as his club came crashing down onto its own head.

Millicent grabbed Alex and pulled her out of the line of fall and then the three girls simply stood there gaping at the creature in horror and wonder. They now understood why not many wizards survived a meeting with a troll and why they weren't approaching magical creatures like trolls in Care of Magical Creatures already.

Before their breathing had a chance to really slow down the shrill voice of Professor McGonagall sounded from behind them. Obviously the teachers had heard the loud commotion they had made while fighting off the troll and Professor McGonagall had come running along with Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape and Professor Quirrel. The Defense Against Dark Arts teacher nearly fainted again at the sight of the unconscious troll inside the bathroom.

"What in heaven's name were you three thinking taking on a mountain troll on your own?" thundered the stern voice of Professor McGonagall and even their Headmaster send them a serious look.

"It's my entire fault Professor. I was hiding in one of the stalls because of something Ron said to me and I didn't want anyone else to see me cry. I thought the troll was still in the dungeons but then it entered the room and I was so scared I didn't know what to do. I was sitting beneath the sinks when Alex and Millicent found me and probably saved my life."

"And what were you two doing here when I sent you to go to your dorms without any further distractions?"

"Well I didn't want Alex to go upstairs alone when I heard the troll climb up the stairs some time before. We were ascending the stairs when they wouldn't let us go any further on this floor so we had to walk towards the second staircase. The lavatory is on the direct route there Professor and while we were passing it we heard Hermione scream and couldn't not do anything."

"Yeah, we wanted to get her out but she was so scared she couldn't move so Millie had to grab her and I distracted the troll. I wasn't fast enough and it hit me with its club. When it tried to strike me a second time Hermione levitated its club and knocked it out cold."

Professor McGonagall studied their expressions intensely and a bit worried in Alex' case but the headmaster had that familiar twinkle in his eyes that told them they wouldn't get into trouble for their actions.

"Now, I think they truly showed their colors don't you my dear?" Professor Dumbledore directed at the still irate Minerva McGonagall.

That seemed to calm the woman down some and she only muttered: "Your mother would have my head if I let anything happen to you in my House."

Professor Snape eyed the three girls with his typical sneer but Alex spotted the slight limp in his leg and the cold look in his eyes. It seemed Harry's feeling and her suspicions had been correct and now the Professor had found out what had been behind it all the time.

Surely he wouldn't tell Alex about what happened between him and Professor Quirrel but her curiosity skyrocketed with his injury and the still seemingly normal behavior of the other man.

Once Professor McGonagall had taken Alex down to the hospital wing where Madame Pomfrey assigned her a nasty potion that healed her cracked ribs and another one which numbed the pain she had from the bruises on her back she and Hermione were sent back to their common room. Millicent had been sent to the dungeons by Snape prior and the two girls could only hope she didn't get into trouble with anyone from her house.

Once Alex and Hermione entered the Common Room, the two Gryffindor girls were immediately questioned by Harry where they'd been. It seemed that he hadn't noticed Ron making snide comments to Hermione about her being a bloody know-it-all. It had all been about him failing a small test in Charms the other day because he had been too lazy to study the night before with the others and now blamed Hermione for it because she had as always done exceptionally well.

Harry grumbled and promised to talk with Ron again about his behavior and Alex promised to be there the next time the boy said something so stupid. Then she would punch him so that it hurt and wouldn't make him forget again the next time his laziness got the better of him.

* * *

When the pupils had calmed down after the incident with the troll and everything went back to normal Alex and Harry wondered about what could've caused the injury on Professor Snape. They were sure that it hadn't been any spell because that would've easily been reversible by the Professor or the school nurse. Ron was convinced it had something to do with the third floor corridor they weren't allowed to enter and Hermione was sure that it had to be some magical creature whose injuries were immune to magic.

They had no idea how close to the truth they all were and it was by accident that they found out just what had caused the injury and what lay behind the closed hallway. Harry and Ron had succeeded in convincing the girls to look in the restricted section of the library for books on magical creatures who were immune to magic and whose injuries couldn't be healed by a simple spell.

It was after midnight when they snuck out of their dormitories and through the hallways down to the library. They had nearly reached it when they stumbled upon Peeves the poltergeist of all things who was in the middle of planning some mischief. When the ghost spotted them he squealed in glee and took a deep breath before shouting on top of his lungs: "STUDENTS OUT OF BED! THERE ARE STUDENTS OUT AFTER CURFEW! HERE ON THE CHARMS CORRIDOR."

The four friends froze in fear and when they heard the unmistakable sound of Filch's unregularly footsteps coming towards them they bolted in the opposite direction, not thinking about where they were going. Peeves continued to scream that there were students heading towards the stairs and Filch no doubt was close behind them.

Harry made them round a corner and take a shortcut they hadn't known about before but when they stumbled out behind a rug on the third floor there was only a short corridor with a door at the end of it in front of them. They sprinted towards it and then crashed into solid wood when it wouldn't open for them. Ron began to panic and rambled about how his mother surely would kill him if he got detention during his first year.

Hermione tried various unlocking spells until one finally worked and they stumbled through the door just seconds before the rug where they had come through moved again and Filch closely followed by his loyal cat Mrs. Norris and a cackling Peeves stumbled into the corridor.

They all sighed in relief when they heard Filch arguing with the poltergeist and then curse some more when he got no clear answer out of him before his footsteps retracted once more and they were alone again. At least they thought they were alone until a deep rumbling growl sounded from behind them and after freezing for a short moment they slowly turned around, coming face to face with a three headed giant dog with vibrant red eyes. The creature looked purely evil and surely wouldn't care for them still being First Years.

When the dog tensed his muscles and bent his legs a little Alex finally managed to snap her mind out of the fear induced haze and threw open the door again, pushing her friend through and then swiftly closing it before the dog could make his first move. She locked it with all the spells she knew which was more than had been cast upon the lock before. Without saying a word they ran all the way back to Gryffindor tower. If Filch would've still been lurking about he would've had no problem catching and punishing them with all the noise they made.

Luckily for them nothing of the like happened and they reached the Common Room without any further incidents and the only thing that was said before they separated was Ron's meek: "I guess now we know what caused Snape's injury."

When Alex scrambled into her bed again that night her mind was buzzing with dozens of questions. Why was there a three headed dog in the school? What was he doing there and why had Quirrel been after it? With her mind still going in circles she finally fell asleep. Unknowing to her Hermione lay awake much longer into the night and thought about the trap door that dog had been standing over. It had to be something important because otherwise Dumbledore wouldn't deem it necessary to take such drastic measures for protection. Surely Quirrel had been after what the dog had been guarding and had been intercepted by Snape who had gotten injured in his task of hindering Quirrel that day.


End file.
